Seven Seas of Despair
by TriMaplenut
Summary: Pirates are criminals. That's what Makoto has been taught. Through bedtime stories and personal accounts, that truth is undeniable. A pirate ship is not a place for happy memories. It is not a place where one can forge unbreakable bonds with the people around you. It is not a place of laughter, of friendship, of family, of love. Right? (Pirate AU)
1. Chapter 1

"Makotoooo! Get down here before your breakfast gets cold!"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I call down. I wait a moment before letting out a sigh. I look into the mirror at the clothes I put on. A pale green shirt and a worn pair of shorts, with some boots bought from down the street—nothing special. But that's okay. It's not the clothes that are special. It's the day.

Today is the day I'm leaving home.

I take a deep breath. The smell of the salty ocean drifts in from my open window. If I strain to listen, I can make out the screeching seagulls and even the waves crashing. Even in the outskirts of Speswynn, the presence of the sea can be felt. I used to go down to the beach a lot with my sister when we were younger. We'd splash in the sea and play in the sand until the sun started to drop below the horizon. I still do that occasionally. The sunset is too beautiful to let a sight like it go to waste.

It makes me remember the port just next to the beach and the fateful trip I made two weeks ago. Ships fill every possible space in the harbor, with sailors and townsfolk delivering goods to the various shops around town. On the other hand, there are always people rushing around to make sure their ships are full of vital supplies and in good condition for the long journeys home.

To be honest… I kind of envy their freedom. Barring a few occasions, Speswynn is the only place I know. That's why I was down there that day. To look for any ships that needed an extra pair of hands. I wasn't bothered about how much they paid me, I just want to see what's out there beyond the island.

And what I found was the _Sea Star_ —a merchant ship that frequently delivers a variety of goods to Speswynn. Although… It wasn't the most traditional of recruitments. I met the second-in-command after I caused an incredibly embarrassing accident that involved him, seven kegs of alcohol, and a crate of fresh tuna. He told me my honesty in owning up and dedication to cleaning up my mess impressed him—and my bad luck was rather amusing. I ended up mentioning the fact I was looking for work and he said he'd talk to his captain, who I didn't get a chance to meet.

And now the time has come for the _Sea Star_ to set sail once more.

I fiddle with the hem of my shirt. Two weeks… sure have gone by fast. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact I'm _actually_ leaving home on a ship. It's a little overwhelming. Sure, as a young man of seventeen, I'm pretty independent, but there's a difference between a thirty minute walk to the butchers and a three month voyage.

"Makoto!" I jump as I hear my sister's voice ring across the house again. "Mom says you're going to be late! Hurry up!"

"All right, all right! I'm coming!" I shout. There's no more delaying the inevitable, I suppose. I turn to my bed where my bag of essentials was sitting. Everything was already packed, so I just need to grab it and go. But something makes me pause before I leave. I rest my hand hesitantly on the door and turn to take in the sight of my room. Memories begin to flood through my mind. The time I spent growing up in here, inviting Sayaka over for games and sneaking her pastries from the kitchen, sharing the bedroom with Komaru until she grew old enough to 'declare her independence' and demand her own room…

It feels like I'm saying goodbye.

I shake my head to rid myself of the bizarre thought. What am I thinking? Sure, it's goodbye and I'm not going to see this for a while, but the journey is three months. It's not forever. I'll be back before long. I slip out of the room and the door shuts with finality.

I trot down the stairs, bag bouncing against my back with each step. The smell of baked goods in the front room wafts through the kitchen but the scent of my own breakfast is a little stronger. Mmm, that smells good… Makes my mouth water. My eyes wander over to the table—and I freeze in horror.

"Komaru!" My younger sister gives me a smug look. She wags her eyebrows and picks up the egg-on-toast breakfast that's _definitely_ meant for me because Mom's already washing all the other plates in the sink.

"It's not my fault you took so long coming down."

I give her a disbelieving look. "That was five minutes ago!"

Our mother stops scrubbing at a stubborn spot on a plate to glance at us. "Play nice, you two."

Komaru lowers her hands and twists her torso around. "Mom, I warned him his food was getting cold! I couldn't just let it go to wa—Hey!"

She lets out a cry of outrage as I use the moment of distraction to snatch the toast from her. Komaru's hands slam down on the table, causing the plate between to clatter slightly.

"You weren't eating it, so I couldn't let it go to waste, could I?" I ask innocently. The toast crunches beneath my teeth as I bite into it, trying not to drop the single fried egg balanced on top. Komaru is right—the toast had cooled to a lukewarm temperature. More time had passed in my room than I'd thought. It's still delicious, though, so I eat without complaint.

"Use a plate, dear," Mom reminds me without even looking over. In response, I plop down into one of the unused chairs and pull Komaru's plate towards me.

Dad pokes his head around the doorway leading to the bakery's kitchen. His hands leave a dusty white mark against the wood frame. "Did I hear something fall?"

"Komaru slammed the table."

"Because Makoto stole my food!"

"It's _my_ food! You already had yours!"

"You weren't eating it!"

"Because I was upstairs! Packing!"

"Please, you packed last night!"

"Relax, you two. It's not even noon and you're already at it," he says, attempting to diffuse the situation. Komaru lets out a huff in response. It doesn't look like she'll try to steal it again, but her eyes still linger on me and my food with a look of jealousy. I roll my eyes and tear off a bit of the toast. She takes it eagerly with a wide smile.

Dad enters the kitchen and rubs my spiky hair affectionately. "You need to work on that bad habit of sleeping in, kiddo. They'll be expecting you to work on the _Sea Star_ rather than nap—and I don't think they'd be as lenient as we are."

"Dad!" His hand moves away as I furiously wave my own at the top of my head. I wish he'd pay attention a bit more to what he's doing. Whether by accident or on purpose, his hands have turned my hair less brown and more beige.

He lets out a chuckle at my actions. Komaru sighs and rests her head on her folded arms. "I can't believe you're going to be gone for a whole three months. You're leaving me all alone!"

"Alone?" I echo. "But Sayaka's still here, you know. And your friend Chieko, right? And Mom and Dad and—"

"I get it, I get it, our town has people," an exasperated Komaru interrupts. She stares at me with a bit of longing. "But it'll be weird without you here. You'll be off sailing around the islands and I'm here baking bread rolls."

"I thought you liked baking bread rolls."

"Makoto, that may be true, but it doesn't change the fact you're not going to be there."

I give her a small smile. "The trip's not just for fun, you know. I'll still be working the whole time. In fact, as the new kid, they'll probably make me do all the jobs the veteran sailors don't want to do. There's going to be lots of people in a small space and I can't be picky with my food."

"Yeah, but I've never even left Speswynn!"

"Because you're younger, Komaru," I reply simply.

She frowns at me. "But you got to go to Erimead when you were younger!"

Dad walks over to her and places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Times are different now," he reminds her. "Pirates are much more active than they used to be. They raided Norbush four month ago and Ostden was burned not long afterward. And that's not mentioning any other towns in the archipelago that have been raided."

Mom pauses in her task at the change of subject. A sorrowful shadow falls over her. "Nor is it mentioning all the attacks that could happen out at sea…" She turns to me with concern in her eyes. "Makoto, are you sure you want to go? What if something happens to you out there?"

"Mom, I've told you for the past two weeks, I made my decision already." My voice is gentle but leaves no room for persuasion. "I understand why you keep asking me, but I want to go. Besides, I'm practically an adult now! I get that the world's a pretty dangerous place, but I'm going to have to get out there one day. Komaru's right in saying I've been to other towns in Corfallow, but I haven't seen any of the other islands. Working on a merchant ship will give me that opportunity! I want to see as much of the world as I can… and I can't do that if I'm stuck in a bakery."

She looks as though she wants to argue more, but lets out a quiet breath of resignation. "Of course. I know you're responsible enough to make your own decisions, but…" Mom stares down at her hands, half-submerged in the water. "Mothers will worry."

A small feeling of guilt begins to well up inside. "Mom…"

"You better get me a souvenir, got it?"

I bite back a laugh at my sister's bitter yet pleading tone. Leave it to Komaru to lift the atmosphere of the room. I try to put on a stern face but the hints of a smile creep through. "Seriously, Komaru?"

She throws her hands up in the air defensively. "I mean, you're going to be spending several days at the ports, right? It's more than enough time!" She huffs and mumbles, "Geez, sorry for asking!"

A chuckle escapes me. She could've been a bit more tactful, but she's still young, so I don't blame her for leaving the dark stuff to the adults. Besides, she's my little sister. Who am I to deny her demands? "You even need to ask? I'll bring back all sorts of things, I promise!"

Because I am coming back. No need to worry about me, Mom. I swear.

"You can only do that if you get there." I look back towards Dad at his cryptic comment. He merely points towards the doorway. "Shouldn't you be going?"

I blink in confusion. What is he…? I glance towards the window, taking in the view of the sun rising and its position against the horizon—

I almost choke on the last bit of toast in my mouth as it finally occurs to me. I'm going to be late!

"Bye mom bye dad bye Komaru I love you!" The words leave my mouth in a blur and I move towards the door even faster. I dodge past my dad's workspace and the pastry displays as I reach the bakery entrance.

"Be careful, Makoto!"

"Remember, don't be a stranger! And try to get along with the crew!"

"Makoto, you better have lots of interesting stories to tell me about when you come back, you hear?!"

A gasp escapes my throat as I trip over a loose bit of cobble on the road. Then their encouraging words register in my head and a grin begins to overtake my face. This is a new chapter in my life. A whole new adventure awaits.

Time to take that first step.

* * *

"There you are! What took ya so long?"

"I-I'm sorry, I just got caught up and—"

"I'm messing with ya! You're perfectly fine, lad. Just get on board, all right?"

I struggle to catch my breath after the absolute sprint over to the port. For a moment there, I thought I wouldn't be able to find the ship amongst the many docked here. When I arrive, however, it's clear I'm worrying over nothing. It's the large ship to the left with people ferrying crate after crate on board. Plus, it has the words _Sea Star_ emblazoned on the hull of the ship. That tends to be a good indicator.

I nod gratefully to the familiar man—Ietsuna Jukodo, he introduces himself as—and climb up the gangplank. The main deck buzzes with activity. Old-time crew members race around and bark out orders to the other sailors on where to move this and where to put that and 'for god's sake, don't drop the rum'.

"Hey, deckhand! New guy! You, with the funny bit of hair that sticks up!" I turn around in surprise at the last part. Never heard that one before, but it doesn't take much brainwork to work out who they're referring to.

A girl stands behind me, dressed in somewhat plain clothes—a white shirt with a red sleeveless jacket over the top and navy blue shorts. A simple tie holds her brown hair up in a ponytail, swirled and sticking upwards. Her tan arms wrap around a heavy-looking crate.

She jerks the crate a little in an attempt to gesture to it. "Mind helping a girl out?"

"Y-Yeah, sure." I move forward and secure my fingers around the edges of the box. She lets go and I almost crumple to the ground from the weight she's dropped in my arms. Holy crud, what the heck's in this?! It weighs a ton! Just as I contemplate giving it back, I look up to see she's already got another identical box in her arms. The protest dies in my throat.

"Let's go!" I guess this is what I get for being helpful. Not a problem, though. Good first impressions matter. With the mysterious girl leading the way, we both descend into the depths of the ship. The layout isn't too complicated, so it doesn't take long to reach the cargo hold. I practically collapse to my knees by the time I place the crate on the floor. The girl is already sat on top of one of the other crates and swinging her legs back and forth.

"Surprised to see a girl on board?" she asks out of the blue.

"A little," I admit. It takes me a second to realize what I've blurted out. I flush in embarrassment and study my shoes. "I-I mean, um…"

She lets out an amused laugh. "It's all right. Merchant ships don't tend to have too many female sailors, am I right?"

"Maybe…?" I reply, my voice a little unsure. I let out a sigh. At least she isn't mad. "But I'm new to the _Sea Star,_ so I can't say I know for sure. I think I'm more surprised to find someone my age."

"Well, I already knew that, but that makes two of us." She jumps off of the crate and holds a hand out to me. "I'm Aoi, but you can just call me Hina."

"Hi, Hina," I greet properly. "My name's Makoto. It's a pleasure to meet you." I give her hand a firm shake and then pause as I finally register her words completely. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"

She wags a finger at me with a smile. "I'm new to the _Sea Star_ as well. I _have_ been on a ship before though, so I could tell you were new—although these circumstances are a bit different. Besides, you were kinda standing there and gawking like a gull waiting for a fish to jump in its mouth." She giggles at her own joke.

I cough and my face burns redder. So much for good first impression. I attempt to move on from her observation and change the subject slightly. "W-Well, this is a completely new experience for me. I've never left Corfallow before. I guess I'm lucky to be here. The job kinda got offered to me a few days ago."

 _"What?!"_ I flinch back from her loud tone in surprise. Her mouth hangs open from shock. "You were _offered?_ Argh, this bites!" She kicks at an empty box that ends up clattering across the floorboards. "I had to hassle that old fart Kirigiri for like _two days straight_ before he finally gave up and let me come!"

"Kirigiri?" I repeat curiously.

She gives me a pointed look of disbelief. "You're telling me you don't actually know your own captain?"

I avert my gaze and scratch my cheek sheepishly. "Actually, I've only met Mister Jukodo… A-Anyway, why were you so desperate? To come, I mean."

She leans against one of the crates and sticks her hands behind her head. "I've always loved the ocean. The sound, the smell… Nothing excited me more in the afternoon than heading down to the beach for a swim. So I thought it'd be fun to spend some time on a ship."

"And why the _Sea Star?_ It sounds like you were pretty determined to get on this specific ship."

"Mmm…" She draws out her hum for a long time, eyes searching around the cargo hold. Her gaze settles on me and her eyelids slide close with a cheeky grin. "Cause I like starfish?"

"Seriously?" I ask. That seems like a really bizarre reason. Plus, the way her voice raised in pitch makes it sound a lot more like a questioning excuse than anything else.

"Kinda," she smiles. "Maybe it's also cause he was just so stubborn about it. I do love a good challenge."

The conversation lulls to a halt after that. It's only then that I realize we've been down here longer than we probably should. "It's been a while… Think we should head back up?"

"Mmm… Nah," she shrugs and pushes off of the crate to look over it almost indifferently. "I'm sure you can manage with whatever they need you to do. You enjoy yourself swabbing the deck."

"Ah…" I'd actually really like her help, but I'm a complete greenhorn while she's apparently got some sort of experience under her belt. I don't think I'm in a position to be telling her what to do. "All right, then," I relent with a defeated tone.

I walk towards the hold's entrance before hesitating. "So I'll see you la—"

I pause. In the brief time that I had my back turned, the girl—Hina—had managed to completely vanish from sight.

"—ter…" I finish awkwardly. I send one last cursory look among the storage space, but she's disappeared without a trace. Heaving a sigh, I trudge back up the stairs and into the light of the deck.

* * *

Being a sailor is actually a lot tougher than I had envisioned. Or at least, being me on a ship is.

Over the next few days of sailing, I still haven't seen hide nor hair of that girl. I try looking around the cargo hold anytime I find myself down there, but she's nowhere to be found. Asking the other sailors gives me conflicting and inconclusive directions. Knowing where she is would be nice since her disappearance means that I have all the exhausting jobs shoved onto me.

As the new kid, I'm delegated with all the menial tasks that no one else wanted to do, like cleaning the cannons, fetching people some rum and—as Hina had so gleefully suggested—swabbing the deck. I'm not surprised, of course. No previous experience aboard a ship and all. I think I'd find it worse if they tried to get me to do more complicated tasks. But it doesn't really make it more fun to do those jobs.

It's been quite the learning experience so far, though. For example, leaving alcohol spills for long is not a good idea. It's best to mop it immediately with the salt water collected from the ocean. That way, the deck stays clean and doesn't smell as badly of rum. Definitely don't use any fresh water, because that's for drinking. Everyone mixes it with alcohol to keep it good, but I managed to convince Jukodo to keep the amount of alcohol in my drinking rations to a minimum. I've seen several sailors too drunk for their own good, and I'm supposed to be bringing Komaru great stories about the places I've been, not about how I was too intoxicated to—

 _"PIRATES!"_

I freeze in my tracks.

A chill runs down my spine and I shiver violently.

What…?

The whole deck goes silent. The sailor watching from the crow's nest continues, "Port side, southwest and approaching fast!"

"Prepare for battle!" the captain orders as soon as he sees them. "They're not taking us down without a fight!"

I hardly register the merchant crew exploding into action, shouting and running around. I stumble across the deck. The sun sinks beyond the horizon, silhouetting the large ship and its menacing flag as it moves towards us. Pirates… are coming? They're… attacking us right now?! What am I supposed to do? How can I prepare for battle? I just about manage with slicing pastries—how does a bakery boy fight off a gang of pirates with swords?!

This… I promised I'd be safe…

It all feels like a bad dream.

Someone crashes into me hard and the impact snaps me from my daze. I look straight up into the beady eyes of the sailor—Ietsuna Jukodo, the man who'd recommended coming aboard a fortnight ago.

"What are ya doing, lad?! You're standing around like a rat caught in the grain store! Get below deck, _now!"_ he snaps. "Find a place to hide, and for god's sake, _stay away from those pirates!"_

"A-A-Aye!" I only respond out of habit and sprint off faster than I've ever done before. My heart pounds against my chest. My blood races around my body at an alarming rate. Another shiver creeps through me when I think of what might be starting above deck. The surroundings go by in a blur. At first, I'm just skipping every other step, but soon I'm practically leaping to the lower levels of the ship.

I could die. It terrifies me, but I could die here, out in the open waters, alone. I'd never see Komaru again, or Mom and Dad, or Sayaka. They'd all be heartbroken when they found out. How long would that be, though? For how many days, or weeks, or _months,_ would they go about their daily lives without a care in the world, waiting for me to come home, unaware that it just _wouldn't happen?_

I block it out and focus my mind on something else.

 _Run and hide. Run and hide. Don't let the pirates find you. Don't let the—_

I crash full-speed into someone. It tears me violently from my thoughts as we both fall to the ground. My chest heaves as I struggle to get air back into my lungs and the person beneath me shoves me back onto my butt.

"Makoto!"

It's her. I don't believe this. I don't even know where she's come from, but that girl from my first day is the one in front of me. She calls my name again, volume raised to a shout to be heard over the chaos of people surrounding us.

I don't respond immediately. I can't. I'm still recovering from the collision and my mind is only working so fast. She grabs onto my shoulders tight and forces me to meet her eyes. "Makoto, what's going on?"

"P-Pirates…" I manage to choke out. Fear makes my voice and body tremble. "T-There are pirates coming… We gotta hide… G-Gotta get away… I… I don't want to die…"

My vision refocuses, and in my daze, I faintly wonder if she's swapped places with someone else. It's like she's changed into a completely different person. She looks more serious than I'd ever seen her before and it's so strange I completely miss what she's saying.

"Makoto, I need you to focus," she says. She gives me a shake to try and grab my attention. "Listen to me, okay? Did you see the flag on the pirate ship? Was it half black, half white?"

"W-What does that—?"

"Please, Makoto. It's important," she insists.

I bite my lip. O-Okay. Important. Let's try and focus. I attempt to rein in my frazzled mind to sift through my memories. Do I remember the flag? Any hints that could answer her question? We sit there for what feels like hours, waiting for my memory to get working and get the information we want. She shifts in place, antsy to get moving and all too aware of the danger above us, but she needs the answer so badly she doesn't—

I got it.

It's only a flicker, but it's enough to confirm the description she gave. I give her a shaky but sharp nod, much easier for my current state of mind than to use words to detail its appearance.

Her eyes darken in response and she lets loose a few curses under her breath. "That's just what I need," I hear her mutter softly. Before I get the chance to ask her about it or even realize what she's doing, she grabs my arm and pulls me towards the stairs.

The stairs leading up.

Oh no. No no no nonono bad idea _bad idea—_

"W-Why are we going above deck?!" I shout as she pulls and pulls without slowing down. "That's where… That's where they are! We n-need to get away and, a-and—"

"What else are we going to do, hide in the cargo hold?" she snaps back. I stay silent. That was what Jukodo had commanded me to do, but… My gut's trying to tell me something. Right now, this girl seems like the person to trust in this situation. Hina's reaction to the crisis makes me think… Not quite that she _expected_ this to happen, but more like… she's experienced something similar before. "No, they're going to aim for the gunpowder and blow this ship apart."

"They wouldn't!" I protest immediately. "Then they'd also—"

"They don't care!" she retorts. We're almost to the deck now. I can't help but hope that she knows what she's doing. Otherwise, she's crazy and about to get us both killed. "Getting off this ship now is the only way we're going to stay alive."

We race up the stairs and encounter what could only be described as utter pandemonium.

The two crews are already locked in fierce combat underneath the twilight sky, either dueling with short swords or just using their fists. The colorful outfits of the pirates immediately draw my attention. They're out of place, disrupting the familiar scene in my mind of the main deck filled with _Sea Star_ sailors. Even more out of place are the splashes of dark red staining every surface and every piece of clothing in sight.

As much as I don't want to admit it, the general difference in skill is easy to see. The _Sea Star_ is just a merchant ship, but the pirates steal and fight for a living—I can tell which side would be more likely to win, even if I despise the outcome.

The girl at my side seems to have come to the same conclusion. Hina tugs at my arm and whispers, "Stay quiet. Follow me."

I don't have a reason to argue, so I nod as she guides me around the outskirts of the battle. The pirates are outnumbered but skilled enough that it requires several crew members to face off against just one. That does nothing to slow the rate at which _Sea Star_ members are dropping dead to the floor. Both warring sides are too preoccupied to notice a couple of kids sneaking around.

Soon it becomes obvious where Hina is headed for. There are several smaller boats stored below deck for any journeys that the larger _Sea Star_ can't manage itself, but two longboats are set up on each side of the deck for emergency purposes. The one Hina is aiming for is the one hanging alongside the starboard—the opposite to where the pirate ship is.

I don't like this. Hina's plan could only be to get to the longboat and leave with just the two of us. She's not even making any attempt to help the crew members or let them know where we're going. I want to protest, to argue that we need to help them, but I glance over at the ferocious battles beside us and the growing carpet of blood and death. The words die before they can even leave my mouth.

She looks back briefly as if to check on me—and then her eyes widen in alarm. "Duck!"

I drop to the wooden floor without even a questioning look. Her feet move forward, coming to a halt right in front of my face. My brain finally catches up and processes everything and I flip over onto my side to look behind me. A man—one of the pirates, as I don't recognize him or his uniform at all—stumbles away from us. He reaches up with his hand to wipe the blood trickling from a slice along his nose. Hina's standing above me, a glare on her face and a dagger in her hand, a sliver of blood running across its edge.

Hell if I know where she got it from, but I'm glad one of us is armed.

The man recovers and raises his sword, but she's ready for him. She steps in front of me and lashes out with the fist clutching the knife. It crashes into his hand and causes the sword to veer down into the floor. She doesn't stop there. Using the momentum, she spins on one foot and lifts her other leg, kicking the guy straight in the nose with a hard, heeled boot.

He crumples to the ground instantly. When he doesn't move after a few moments, Hina shoves the knife into her boot and grabs me roughly by the forearm. "Okay, screw the stealth! Let's go!"

She pulls me through the battlefield with renewed vigor, faster than my feet can keep up with. She ducks and dodges around the combatants who get in her way. A few times she comes to a sudden halt when someone blocks her path and I have to put the brakes on to prevent from crashing into her back. I barely avoid falling flat on my face when she abruptly pulls me again.

"Hina!" I shout in warning. I knew we couldn't go long without _someone_ noticing us. She turns just in time to see the pirate raise his sword, ready and eager to do some damage to our fleshy limbs. She reacts swiftly, crouching down to grab her knife from her boot, but someone gets there first.

We watch in surprise as a second sword strikes the pirate's with a sharp sound, belonging to none other than the captain of the _Sea Star._ It's caught the pirate off-guard too, as he can't avoid the following punch that cracks against his temple. The captain doesn't waste the opportunity and drives his sword toward the pirate's unprotected neck. I squeeze my eyes shut and try my best to block out the chilling sounds of death. When I look again, I keep my gaze on the captain as he turns and examines both of us.

Hina tightens her grip on her knife. When I look at her face, she looks almost apprehensive to come face-to-face with the man—something I don't have much time to wonder about.

"We're getting off this ship right now," she says firmly. Her hand still in a death grip around my forearm, she pulls on me so that I'm standing behind her. Is she… protecting me from the captain? But why? Why's she acting so odd around him?

He observes us for a moment longer before nodding in agreement. "Yes, you kids need to get off. Let's go. I'll cover you."

She still looks nervous but nods and tugs on my arm again. My hand twitches in an attempt to get some blood flowing back to it. I wince at the pins and needles running across my arm, but I don't even think of complaining about Hina's tight hold. If she lets go of me, god knows what could happen.

I can't tell if we're moving any faster with the captain leading us. He handles the pirates with startling efficiency, but it's the fact he constantly stops to help his crew that slows us down. Hina gets this strange look on her face every time he does so. It almost looks like annoyance at the constant delays. She still has her knife in her hand, clearly not eager to be caught unaware again.

"I don't think we've been acquainted, young man," the captain suddenly says as we move again. "Jin Kirigiri, captain of this ship."

There's an attack waging on his ship, his crew is dying around him, and he thinks _now_ is the time for introductions? "I-Is this really a good time?!"

Kirigiri lets out an amused chuckle. "I suppose not," he admits. "But in a time of crisis, there's no use in panicking. This is how I keep myself level-headed."

He stops once again. He steps forward and his sword flashes as he swings at a pirate who was sneaking up on a _Sea Star_ sailor already engaged in battle. I look away as the man's body drops to the ground.

"I've heard about you from Ietsuna," Kirigiri continues. "Says he admired your hardworking nature and your honesty."

My face heats up from embarrassment. As if I needed a reminder about that. "Not one of my finer moments…"

"Huh. If you were anyone else, I would expect no acknowledgment of that incident."

"I guess it's because things like that happen to me a lot. It's gotten to the point that it doesn't surprise me when unlucky things happen. I thought coming here was my first sign of good luck in a while, but…" I trail off. Yeah, this trip is going _really_ well.

"Well, don't you sound pessimistic…" Hina mumbles dryly. She seems irritated that we're talking in the middle of a battle, but it looks like she can't hold back her smart comment.

"Actually, I'd say my one redeeming quality is my optimism," I argue weakly, giving a small, lopsided smile. "After all, even with all my bad luck, I'm still here, right? Whatever happens, I'm sure I can bounce back from it eventually."

She glances back at me and rolls her eyes, but I see a hint of amusement on her face. "I take that back, then."

"Here." We suddenly come to a stop. We made it. We somehow managed to make it all the way to the rowboat without dying. Kirigiri takes a defensive stance as Hina shoves me into the boat. I almost lose my footing as it rocks beneath me but I manage to regain my balance. Of course, then she hops in herself and sends the boat jerking again.

Hina begins messing around with something on the bottom of the boat, tugging some long bits of wood free from under the planks that function as seats. I don't know how I can help and it seems like she can handle herself, so I just try to stay out of her way. While I watch her, Kirigiri leans in close to me.

"Do me a favor, young man…" He digs his hand into his pocket and pulls out a small object dangling from a simple string. His hand blocks my view of the object, but his expression softens as he stares at it. His face grows stern again as he places it in my palm, curling my fingers around it. "Keep this safe for me, please."

I blink in confusion at him. I want to open my fist and look at what he's giving me, but his larger hands remain wrapped around mine. I look up at him and nod, tucking the small object into my pocket without so much as a glance. "Aye, sir."

His face twitches into a warm smile, but it disappears when a shout of, "Jin!" rings out from behind him. He turns and I look over at—oh, god. Jukodo is standing there and he looks so much worse than the last time I saw him. His clothes are slashed and stained with blood. His left eye is swollen shut and the streams of red dripping down his face only add to his panicked expression. "The pirates! They broke through the crew below deck! They're heading for the gunpowder stores!"

The captain's face grows ashen as the realization hits him. He turns back to us in the boat and yells, "Hang on, we're sending you off!"

"What?!" I cry as Jukodo heads to the other end of the boat, pulling out his sword. "B-But, what about—?!"

"No time!" Kirigiri snaps. "Most of the crew is dead anyway. There's no point in trying to gather the live ones."

"But, you could—!"

The look on his face makes me stop in my tracks. His eyes… there is fear. His eyes are full of fear. And yet, he manages a determined smile. "A captain stays with his crew."

I want to argue. I want him to live. I want to be able to give him back his possession. But… he has accepted his fate. He will go down fighting.

There is nothing I can say to that kind of resolve.

"Now grab on tight," he says, raising his sword. "This could get bumpy. Ready?!"

"Aye!"

"GO!" In perfect sync, the two sailors of the _Sea Star_ swing their swords. The ropes holding up both ends of the boat are cleanly sliced through. My stomach leaps up into my throat as the rowboat shoots down towards the surface of the sea.

The last I saw of Kirigiri's face, illuminated by the light of the lanterns and the fading sun, was an expression of fear. Determination. Regret. But what that regret was, I'll never be able to know for certain.

We crash into the sea and the impact tosses me into a tangled heap at the bottom of the boat. "Aaahghh!" I shout in surprise, disoriented and in pain from the landing. Before I can recover myself, something yanks the back of my shirt and plops me onto one of the seat planks. I let out a short wheeze as something is thrust into my chest.

"Row! We need to turn it around!" Hina snaps, already frantically paddling with an oar. I glance down at the object she shoved into my arms. Another oar. Oh, I get it now. Reacting to her frantic tone, I jab the oar into the water at my end and move it so the boat will hopefully swivel around. Slowly but surely, we begin to spin.

Once the boat turns to a direction away from the ship, she yells at me to change my paddling to drive the boat forward. We begin moving at a snail's pace, but we're moving away from the _Sea Star_ regardless.

Hina's not impressed.

"We've gotta get farther away than this! Pick up the pace, Makoto!"

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to make us go faster!"

"Okay, okay, how about this?" She places the tip of her oar back in the water. "When I say row, you row."

"Gotcha!"

"Row! Row! Row—A little more power!—Row! Row! Good, keep it steady! Row!"

 _Row… Row… Row…_ The rhythm of her calls gets stuck in my mind, repeating and fueling my motions. She stops shouting occasionally to yell at me about my rowing, but we make some good progress.

She turns back after a while, half-facing my direction but not quite looking at me. More like behind me. "A bit further…" she mumbles to herself. "That'll be f—"

The night scenery around us brightens in a flash. In that split moment, I can see her face alight with orange and fear. She moves quick, jumping towards me. "Ge—!"

Her words aren't cut off as she crashes into me. Rather, they're drowned out by the deafening boom that engulfs the world.

An invisible force shoves the boat hard. It sends it skipping across the ocean like a pebble and almost tips it over in the process. There's no rest as large waves form and throw the boat into turmoil, rocking and twirling and swaying violently. The flash and bang leave my senses overwhelmed. The heat washing over me is unbearable. Pressure forms on my chest where Hina's body presses up tightly against mine, sandwiching me between the wooden seat and herself.

An eternity passes before she finally untangles herself from me. She helps me sit upright again and I blink rapidly to try and adjust my eyes to the level of light. She opens her mouth to say something—but I can't hear anything. I rub the side of my head in confusion. Nope, still nothing, except for a ringing echoing around in my head. A look of understanding flashes across Hina's face and she talks again. Her lips are making muffled sounds this time, but they aren't making any words in my head.

Wait. Something's not right. There's no way my sight could have fixed itself that quickly. It's night out, pitch black under the stars, but somehow it's bright enough for me to see her lips move? It all clicks and I whirl to look behind me where—

The _Sea Star._ It's sitting there—a brilliant bonfire that lights up the surrounding sea. It's in pieces, burning debris floating in the water nearby, stubbornly blazing and refusing to be doused. The pirate ship beside it is also alight with fire, another explosion sending out shockwaves and flames and bits of the ship. All those people… They… All of them, they're all—! They're—!

My stomach gurgles and brings up everything I've eaten the past few days. Something shoves my head towards the side of the boat and the contents splatter into the ocean instead of all over the boat. I continue to heave and cough as the hand keeps my head down and another rubs my back comfortingly.

Eventually—and thankfully—my gut runs out of ammo and I finally get the chance to breathe properly. I try to get my breathing back to a steady rhythm while getting as much air as I need. The hand finally relinquishes its push on my head and I sit up.

"Hey," Hina murmured. Her voice is soft and concerned as she strokes my back again. "You okay…?"

I don't respond immediately. A silent and motionless minute goes by before I finally give a slow shake of my head. A sob that has been building up in my throat finally escapes. The floodgate opens and tears stream down my face.

"They're… They're all… _dead…"_ I choke out. Everything happened too fast. One minute everything was fine and the _Sea Star_ was full of people with lives and dreams and families and now—

Now it's all gone, taken in an instant.

I cry and bawl and sob, unable to keep control of my emotions. It takes me a long time before I realize that she's pulled me in close, my face resting in the crook of her neck. I hold her tight as her fingers run through my tangled hair and she whispers something into my ear—murmurs of assurance that I don't think are even words, just a string of sounds meant to soothe and calm me.

It takes a few minutes, but I'm able to move on from an inconsolable wreck to someone with the capacity to form complete sentences. I pull back, and she does so too. "Better?" she asks.

"Hardly…"

She lets out a sigh. Not an irritated one, but one of… pity, perhaps? Sympathy? "Well, you're better enough to give a response like that, so I suppose that'll do." She passes me one of the oars and moves back to her end of the boat. "I know you probably need some more time, but we should really be moving. There's not…" She hesitates. "There's not really any reason to stick around here."

I glance back to the wreckages. "But… What if—?"

"Makoto, I need you to think about this," she interrupts. My gaze shoots back. Her expression is the same one from when I told her of the impending attack—completely and utterly serious. She's so different I can hardly believe she's the same girl I met that first day… "We don't have any supplies. We're not gonna last long by floating around in the middle of the ocean. If we're going to go anywhere, we need to go. _Now."_

"I—"

No, Hina's right. Now's the most important time for me to focus. This is our survival we're talking about—we've got to go, even if it's the last thing my heart is screaming for me to do. I give her a firm nod. "Okay."

She returns it with her own nod and swings her legs so she's facing forward. She grips onto the oar and plunges it into the water. I tighten my hands around the stick, but… that's as far as I get. Something's still weighing heavy on my mind. Hina notices after a few seconds of not moving anywhere and looks back at me. "Problem?"

"I…" I let out a heavy sigh, dithering over how to put my thoughts into words. "Why… Why are pirates… bad?"

"Bad?" she parrots. Her eyes widen in astonishment at my question.

I nod, feeling a little surer in my words. "Why do they… do bad things? All they do is… is fight, and steal, and _kill…_ T-They kill _innocent people_ for no reason! Innocent people with lives and families and friends that they'll never get to see again!" Once again, my emotions rage in an uncontrollable torrent, giving my thoughts verbal form. I recall the past days aboard the _Sea Star._ I recall my mother's concern over losing me. I recall the fear as I ran and ran through the boat… Everything clashes and mixes to fuel my growing anger.

"And they just do it, over and over again! Don't they feel remorse?! Don't they know how many lives they're ruining?! How can they call themselves people?!"

My volume suddenly drops, but the intensity in my voice doesn't. "They're… They're not people. They're just cold, selfish murderers."

A chilly breeze rushes past. The waves knock into the side of the boat. My heart thuds in my ears. Besides that, the boat is deadly silent.

After a minute, Hina slowly turns back to face the front of the boat. "…We're going."

I blink, the intense emotions inside me subsiding with my rant. Her tone of voice… It's really flat. Did I do something wrong? Did I bring up bad memories? "Huh?"

"I said we're going, so row!" she snaps suddenly. Taken by surprise, I jump and put the oar into the ocean. She stays quiet so I'm forced to watch her movements to paddle in time with her. It's harder than before as her strokes are more powerful and frequent than I can make mine.

A feeling of guilt wells up inside me. It's obvious I said something that upset Hina in some way… I want to apologize, but judging by the way she's stabbing the water with that oar, I should probably leave it for a while.

And so, we row on in silence.

The wreckage of the _Sea Star_ has long since disappeared by the time my arms finally give up. I just can't keep up with the speed she's going at. She did say something about being on a ship before, and that experience is serving her well. She's still going at the same pace she set nearly an hour ago.

"Hina…!" I stop to let out a cough. My voice is practically silent from lack of use. "Hina, can we stop and rest for a bit? I can't keep rowing…"

She sends an annoyed glance my way—is she _still_ upset?—but relents. "All right, but only for a little while."

I let out a sigh of relief, resting the oar against the side of the small boat and giving my aching arms the break they deserve. Even as I do, concern for my boat mate leaks to the front of my mind. I watch her back as she leaves her oar across her lap and looks up at the stars. She mutters something inaudible under her breath and occasionally raises a finger halfheartedly as if pointing out something to herself.

I swallow thickly. "W-Where are we headed to?" I word my sentence as politely as I can, though my voice still wavers as I interrupt her strange actions.

She doesn't turn around or anything. Thankfully, she does tell me, "Elfport—nearest place I know of. It's got a port for trading ships, so you should be able to find a ride back home no problem. Two days away, though, so don't go starving on me."

I make a noise of acknowledgment. I know she won't see any sort of nod from me. I think about her words again, picking over each one in my mind… until I discover the deeper meaning behind them. "W-Wait, do you mean—Are we splitting up?"

She _does_ turn at that question, which gives me a lovely view of her exasperated expression. "Yeah," she answers flatly, swiveling back around. "Obviously."

Obviously? C-Crap, I really hit a nerve earlier, didn't I…? "Look, Hina…" I begin nervously. "If what I said earlier upset you or anything, I—"

I'm interrupted by a sharp laugh. _"'Upset_ me'?" she repeats incredulously, facing me again. A snarl warps her features as she slams her hand on one of the two unused seats between us. "Maybe you should _think_ a little before you go off on insensitive rants like that!"

"I-I'm sorry if I brought up bad memories or anything," I defend myself, waving my hands in front of my face, "but it's not like I said anything wrong, right? Pirates are savage killers."

"You can't just stereotype like that!"

"Well, you can't argue that they're not all criminals," I fire back. "That's pretty much the _definition_ of a pirate!"

"You still can't just group them all together," she argues. "Have you even _met_ a pirate?"

"I _have,_ in case you've forgotten," I remind her, gesturing wildly to the direction we came from. "They kinda just _blew up our ship!_ And for no reason—they just blew themselves up too!"

"You're using them to stereotype pirates?! That's like saying all apples taste bad because you once had a week-old moldy one!"

"What on earth do apples have to do with pirates?!"

"I'm saying that there's such a thing as a pirate who's good! One who feels bad about having to do pirate things like steal and kill!"

"If they felt bad about it, they'd stop doing it! And it doesn't change the fact that they're murderers!"

 _"Stop calling me a murderer!"_

I freeze. The sudden scream leaves my mind a complete blank. Her words echo around my skull, repeating over and over. My mouth hangs open, completely stupefied. "Wha…? Y… You're a…?"

Hina's eyes widen. She realizes her mistake, but she quickly adopts a furious expression again, angry tears building in her eyes. "Yeah, you heard me!" she shouts again. "I know my way around a ship because I live on a pirate ship! I love the ocean because I've spent my whole life out here! I can fight because that's what I was taught to do! I'm a pirate, sure, but that doesn't make me any less of a person! I saved you, didn't I?! I didn't have to, but I did because you're kind, and sweet, a-and because you're m-my…"

Her voice wavers and catches in her throat, causing her words to become disjointed. After a brief swallow, she keeps going on in a quieter voice. "And… because that's what you do… That's what you do as a decent human being…"

She falls silent. Her hand retracts to cradle the other in her lap. I watch her for a moment before averting my gaze to my feet.

Her words make me doubt myself. There's no room for debate when it comes to the pirates that attacked the _Sea Star._ They're evil, plain and simple. They killed for the fun of it. They didn't even have any regard for their own lives. They're pirates.

But then there's Hina. The girl sitting in front of me, eyes downcast and shrunken in on herself. She feels pain and hurts like a normal person. She smiles and laughs like anybody else. She was concerned for me and comforted me when I cried. She saved my life. And she's a pirate.

Pirates used to be such a simple term for me. They were the people who burned and raided villages and towns, who laid siege to military ships and merchant ships alike, who did what they pleased with hardly a thought to anyone else. The attack tonight only solidified that definition in my mind.

And still… That term also applies to Hina. She admitted it herself. She's not like that, though, not from what I've seen of her. She's a pirate but she doesn't act anything like the homicidal brutes in the stories.

So… How can Hina be the same as the _Sea Star's_ attackers and yet so different?

I realize suddenly that there is an extreme need for a subject change. Like, right now. I clear my throat to grab her attention. "…What are you planning to do after we split up?"

She doesn't answer. For a moment I think she hasn't heard me until she takes a deep breath and wipes her bare arm across her face.

"No harm in telling you now, I guess…" Her voice is quiet as she starts and then it rises in volume to a comfortable speaking level. "Once I leave you, I'll join back up with my crew. That _was_ the plan, after I'd spent a bit of time on the _Sea Star,_ but… well…" There's a heavy pause. "To say I'm going back _much_ earlier than we planned would be an understatement."

"Join back up?" I echo. "Where are they now?"

"They're… um…" She bites her lip, looks towards me, and then glances away. "Uh… They've been trailing us ever since we left Speswynn," she confesses quickly in a single breath.

"They—Wha—Really?!"

"Not like directly behind us or anything!" she yells. "That'd be asking for trouble! No, I just gave them a copy of the route—not exactly following it themselves, but close enough." She shivers a little and pulls her sleeveless jacket tighter around her torso. It's a cold night in our small, dark boat. I'm starting to feel the chill due to my short sleeves and short pants. "They'll definitely see the _Sea Star's_ wreckage."

"Will they know you've gone to Elfport?" I ask.

Hina glances out to sea. In the limited moonlight, I can just see her expression darken. "Well… no," she admits quietly. "I'll… just have to hope I can meet up with them."

Oh.

 _Oh._

The realization crashes into me hard.

Hina's been putting my needs before her own this whole time. She could have left me below deck but she dragged me with her. She could have made a break for the rowboat at any time but she protected me. She could have ignored my sorrows but she comforted me.

Before I said anything about pirates, she was determined to get me to Elfport so I could get home—and even after my outburst, her decision never changed. When her pirate ship comes across the remains of the _Sea Star,_ they could assume any number of events. They might think she escaped or died, but the likelihood they'd work out she went to Elfport would be low. Hina would be stuck there, a criminal pirate hiding from the kingdom, unable to work and unable to feed herself. Alone, separated from the people she knows, constantly fighting against odds just to survive.

She'd still do it for a stranger like me.

All _I_ did was unknowingly call her a murderer.

"How much longer will it take to get there?"

"I already said, but judging by the pace we're going at, with breaks and hoping the weather stays decent… I'd say another day. Maybe two."

"There's nowhere closer?"

"Not unless you fancy being stranded on a desert island."

"What about your ship?"

Her eyes shoot up to meet mine, surprise clearly shining in them. "What?"

"Your ship. Would it be closer to travel to?" I clarify. The beginning of an idea is brewing in my mind, but my mouth is working faster than my brain. I haven't given it much thought, admittedly, but that won't slow me down.

"Uh, well…" She hums, looking up at the night sky and scanning the surroundings. "If they've stayed on course and we head there now…" She gives herself a little affirmative nod. "Yeah… We'd probably come within visual distance in about two hours."

"Let's go, then."

Hina blinks rapidly at me. She opens her mouth, stops, and then closes it again. Then she blinks some more. "Wait, what?"

I let out a little, amused huff and smile. "Let's go. To your ship."

Silence reigns over our rowboat once more.

It's disturbed by an unexpected outburst of laughter from Hina. "Ha! Haha ha! Oh, Makoto, you're a riot!" She pauses to breathe between broken giggles. "As if you'd _actually_ choose to go and board a pirate ship, especially after your rant, and be willing to mix with a real-life pirate crew and oh god you're serious, aren't you?" she asks, not even missing a beat when she sees my face.

"It makes sense to go somewhere closer, right?" I reason.

"Y-You're crazy!" she shouts at me. "You went on and on earlier about how you think pirates are dirty, selfish, awful monsters! A-And besides, you're just an average kid! The _Sea Star_ was your first time at sea! You're barely even a sailor! I can't bring you to a pirate ship!"

"What about the people you care for? I can't ask you to leave that for my sake."

"W-What about the people _you_ care for?!" she heatedly retorts. "Sure, my crew will probably worry about me, but I can handle myself, and you're… well, you're _you!_ Your family'll be expecting you back home at some point, and when they hear about how the _Sea Star_ never made it to port they'll think you're dead!"

I look away to hide my pained expression. "I… I know that. Even so…" I lift my head and smile softly. "You're the one who needs to be with family to survive."

She opens her mouth—but no more rebuttals come out. Instead, Hina hesitantly asks, "You'd really… do that for me…?"

I nod without any reluctance. "Of course. That's what…" I stop and look down at my feet to think of exactly what I want to say. "That's what _friends_ do for each other."

Hina brings her arm up against her face and rubs it as she sniffles. Even when she pulls it away I can still see her eyes glistening. "Are you sure you're sure about this, though?" she questions. "I mean… They might let you stay on the ship, but I'm not sure if I could convince them to drop you back at Speswynn, or even anywhere near it—"

"That's fine," I immediately assure her. "I don't want to be a bother or anything. If they let me stay, that's good enough for me."

Hina lets her breath out slowly, grabbing her oar and bringing it close. She eyes me, looking me up and down. "You're really _really_ sure…?"

A laugh bubbles up from my chest. A genuine laugh that leaves me grinning. It feels… really refreshing after the long and tiring day. Like… there's still a chance that things will go right.

"Hina, it's not negotiable. I don't have many options anyway. No matter how many times you ask me, I'm not going to let you sacrifice things like that just so I can get home."

Mom, Dad, Komaru… Please forgive me. I can't let her do that for me. Just wait for me and… and have hope.

Hina hums in thought for a while before giving her own giggle. "Okay then!" She stands up abruptly and knocks the wide end of her oar against the boat's floor. I yelp in surprise as her sudden movement causes the boat to rock and tip. I scramble to the back of the boat to try and balance it out again.

"Hina!"

"Makoto, for the next two hours, we're the crew of this ship of ours!" she declares enthusiastically. "I hereby christen it—Uhh… Ah! The _Lucky Donut!"_

"The _Lucky…_ what?!" I echo in utter bafflement.

"The 'lucky' part is yours," she explains matter-of-factly. "You said you've been really unlucky before but you still hold onto the hope that you'll get through it and things'll start looking up for you! Besides, it rolls off the tongue better than the _Hopeful Donut_ or the _Optimistic Donut."_

"But…" I mutter, confused beyond belief. "Why 'donut'?"

What even is a donut?

"Because donuts are delicious and amazing and heaven on earth!" she laughs. "Look, just trust me when I say this and don't ask any more questions. And, by the way, I'm the captain now so you will address me as such!"

"Wha—Why do you get to be the captain?" I protest.

"Shh! Let me have my moment, okay?!" She huffs and folds her arms, finally sitting back down on her seat. "It's not every day I get a chance to be captain."

That catches me by surprise. "You're not the captain of your pirate ship?"

"Of course not!" She bursts into a fit of giggles again. I can't help but smile. This is better. She's more like the Hina I first met, cheerful and easygoing. "All that strategizing and planning and organizing and… Well, my style is more train, eat, sleep, fight, and repeat!"

Hina puts a finger to her chin. "Oh, but I guess when my captain's busy, I get left with a few responsibilities."

"What's your crew like?" I ask with interest. After all, if I'm going to be bunking with them for a while, it'd be good to have a head's up on what they'll be like.

"Oh, don't worry about it at all, Makoto!" she says, eager to dispel my doubts. "They're all really nice, I promise! A bit odd at times, and a little bothersome, but you can always count on them in a pinch."

The smile fades my face. "Uh, that doesn't tell me much." If anything, it makes me more worried that she has to assure me like that.

Hina shrugs at me. "Well, what do you want me to say? Just wait until you meet them and you'll see what they're like for yourself."

"Seriously…? Not even a little forewarning? A heads-up on whose bad side not to get on?"

"No time!" she exclaims and hefts her oar over the edge of the boat. "We gotta go or we might miss them! And with your poor paddling, I gotta keep you in time with me or we'll never make it."

I stifle the growing urge to sigh and place my own oar in the water. "Okay, okay."

"Come on, have a little more enthusiasm!" Hina pumps her fist straight up into the air. "All right, First Mate Makoto, full speed ahead!"

I shake my head momentarily, pushing down any gloomy feelings still lingering. I beam at her and throw my own fist upwards. "Aye aye, Captain Hina!"

That makes Hina turn back to me and give me the widest grin I've ever seen. She then faces the front again and starts up her rowing mantra with more enthusiasm than I thought possible. With all the energy, though, we're able to get the boat—I mean, the _Lucky Donut_ —traveling at a decent pace.

It doesn't take long for Hina to grow tired of repeating the same word over and over. I don't blame her. If I was in her place, not only would the word start to sound like something else completely, but my mouth would probably be dry. It doesn't do anything to damage our rhythm, though. With things between us settled for the moment, it's easy to keep rowing in time with her. Our synchronized efforts are steady but with enough force to propel us at a decent pace.

Which means my arms get even more of a workout than they're used to. Geez, it's like they're about to fall out from my sockets. I sigh internally and take a breath to ask for yet another break when—

"There it is!"

Hina shoots up to her feet following her ecstatic cry—which, predictably, sends the boat swaying and lurching. What is it with this girl and wanting to capsize the boat?! Though I'll admit, she must've done this countless times in the past because her balance is amazing.

Once I make sure we don't take an unplanned swim, I glance around to try and spot what Hina's seen. I eventually make it out far in the distance, a blob of golden light just on the horizon. How on _earth_ she could tell that was her pirate ship from that distance is beyond me. Then again, if it is, that means no more rowing, so you don't really see me complaining.

Meanwhile, she brings both of her hands to her lips and sticks two fingers from each into her mouth. Taking a deep breath, she then lets it out as a whistle—a surprisingly loud, sharp one that leaves me covering my ears. She whistles continuously until her lungs inevitably run out of air. She's done a good job, though. The sound echoes around the ocean for a long time. She pauses for a few seconds to regain her breath and then whistles again.

Her weight shifts, and with it, the boat. I move around again to stabilize it before I realize the easiest solution to the problem. "Hina, can you please sit down?!" I request, slightly exasperated. The number of times she's almost caused us to go overboard…

She rolls her eyes and huffs but obliges, thankfully. She decides to send me a cheeky grin, and now I can't tell whether she's standing up whenever she can just to irritate me. We start rowing again to get closer to the ship, which takes less time than I would've thought. It's because the ship has heard Hina's whistles and changed course in response.

Soon it pulls up close to us and I get a good luck at Hina's ship. First impression, it's impressively massive—well, actually, it's quite a bit smaller than the _Sea Star,_ but it's huge in comparison to our dinky lump of wood. The deck is quite a few meters above our heads, but it looks well lit with lanterns, peacefully quiet on top. I guess it's really late at night. Or early in the morning. Some ungodly hour to be awake at, basically. Right at the top of the crow's nest, I can just make out the fluttering shape of a flag. The lanterns barely light it, so all I can make out is that it's a rather dark, cool color, like navy or indigo.

Next to me, Hina grins and cups her hands around her mouth. "Ahoy up there! Mind throwing us the ropes?"

I look over to where she's looking up to—at the railing above us, on the ship's port side—and I just catch a glimpse of a large silhouette before they disappear from sight. Soon, some ropes are dangling from the side of the ship. As we maneuver ourselves so we can reach them, Hina instructs me to connect two clips on the ship's rope to the rope attached to the _Lucky Donut._ Once we're done with that, Hina gives the okay and we're slowly raised from the ocean surface.

Hina turns to me, positively beaming and announces, "Welcome to _Hope's Peak!"_

* * *

 **What am I doing what am I doing this is a terrible terrible idea.**

 **For newcomers to my stuff, hey there, I'm TriMaplenut, my friends call me Maple, and I'm obsessed with Dangan Ronpa. Obviously. And to my old readers… yeah sorry for no FTUH. I had a bout of storyplanning but it was for this rather than FTUH so I decided "Let's try and get this written and post it."**

 **This is still a terrible idea though cause now I've got two stories with only vague plot plans. Huzzah!**

 **The ending of DR3 got me pumped for writing though so I wanted to get this done quickly but I'm still annoyed at myself for not posting this on the 19th (which, for the uninformed, is Talk like a Pirate Day).**

 **So anyway, yay, Pirate AU. Funfact, this was written before I even started FTUH, so it's even older! By like five months or something. Anyway, as this is an AU, it won't exactly _spoil_ the game/anime, but it will reference/reflect events. Such as the fact we've already met Jin Kirigiri (rip in peace old dude).**

 **Warning everyone now, I am terrible when it comes to updates, and I'm not even as prepared as I was with FTUH. This is the only chapter I've fully written. The others just have like a half or a third written. Plus, this is basically my own plot, whereas FTUH follows the plot of Fairy Tail. That said, I get a bit more freedom with this story while a lot of FTUH is copying from the episodes (whoops) so we'll see where this goes. I'll try to split updating time between the two, but tbh it'll be whichever I feel more motivated to write at the time. My tumblr, trimaplenut, will have a page where I give a percentage guess of how finished the chapters for my stories are, so SS of Despair will join FTUH there soon.**

 **So please, let me know what you think of this opening chapter! I love reading what you guys think, and I'll respond to replies in the following chapter's AN. Also, apologizing in advance if anything didn't get enough explanation in the chapter—a friend proofread the basic plot of the chapter, but some sections have changed since then and it hasn't been proofread since. There may be some mistakes. And writing in first-person present is a new experience for me, but I liked it better for this story than the style of FTUH.**

 **I figure I'll clarify in advance too—Speswynn is Makoto's hometown, and Corfallow is the island that houses Speswynn (as well as Norbush and Ostden and Erimead that were mentioned).**

 **Also the struggles I went through to try and see if three months was an accurate time frame for the journey (because I'm that sort of person). I had been starting a small map of the islands to get an idea of how big they were so I finished doodling that, and then I had to decide how big the island Speswynn resides on was, then use _that_ as a sense of scale, then decide how far away the other islands the Sea Star would be travelling to would be _from_ Speswynn, _then_ convert it into nautical miles (from km) then research about the general speed of ships from this sort of time, aND THEN I FINALLY FOUND THE TIME SO IT'S SORTA ACCURATE.**

 **Who said maths wasn't relevant for life? Speed distance time, bitches.**

 **BUT UGH I NEED TO VENT FOR A MOMENT. I use Grammarly for spellcheck because the Word one is kinda shit, but someone who uses Grammarly, please tell me why it doesn't like the words 'oar' or 'row' because I swear to god it kept flagging them up for no reason and I just, _argh._**

 **My apologies, I ramble in ANs.**

 **But anyway yeah, hope you enjoyed, see you either next chapter here or over on FTUH!**


	2. Chapter 2

Hina wastes no time. The second the deck is within boarding distance, she springs out of the boat and launches herself at the biggest, buffest person I have ever seen in my life. Ever.

"Sakuraaaa!"

I yell in shock as the boat sways from her jump. The giant is also taken by surprise from the force of Hina's tackle. He loses his grip on the pulley system and my heart leaps into my throat as the boat plummets. Just as soon as I start falling though, the boat quickly jerks to a halt, thudding against the hull of the ship. I breathe a sigh of relief, placing a hand on my chest to try and calm my racing heart. One drop into the sea is enough for one night. As soon as the boat is secure, I crawl over the edge onto the more stable deck. Dear god, sweet solid-ish ground! I'll never take you for granted again!

Hina, blissfully ignorant of the heart attack she almost gave me, continues to happily squeeze her fellow pirate. "Geez, I missed you so so much!"

"I am happy to see you again too," Sakura replies.

Wait.

I thought…

Is Sakura a girl…? At first I thought she was a dude because her voice is deep and her appearance a little misleading…

I mean, I guess it's pretty obvious in retrospect. There's no mistake that she's a girl. Sakura certainly sounds like a girl's name, and it's hard to miss the large che—

Um. Yeah.

I'm going to stop there.

Her outfit's also pretty similar to Hina's. The most notable differences are the blue-striped shirt as opposed to plain white, and Sakura's large red jacket. The sleeves are missing and the edges around the shoulders are frayed and worn.

Sakura's smiling face slowly shifts into one of confusion. "But what are you doing back so soon? It has only been a few days. You should be arriving at your first stop in another day or two."

Hina lets out a soft chuckle as she lets go, but it's nervous and missing the usual mirth. "That's… Well, that's a bit of a long story. Short version, some complications arose and we had to abandon ship pretty quickly."

Calling the attack on the _Sea Star_ a 'complication' is a bit of an understatement, don't you think? The most accurate word I can think of is disaster. Even just thinking about what happened makes my stomach churn. The whole thing really happened. The _Sea Star_ was really sunk by pirates. And sunk is putting it lightly—they blew it to pieces and their own ship even got caught in the blast. Why would… How could anyone do anything so horrible?

Because they're pi—

I shut out the annoying little voice in my head and try to focus on Hina's words instead. She told me that not all pirates are the same—some can be good people and it's unfair to assume otherwise. So far, it seems to be true about the energetic girl. And, if I'm going to be spending some time here, I need to keep an open mind about what these people will be like. I know I wouldn't like it if a guest or customer in our bakery started insulting our goods and accusing us of purposeful food poisoning.

Hina brings me back from my thoughts when she throws her arm over my shoulders. "This here's Makoto," she introduces to her friend. "Sweet kid I met on the _Sea Star._ We managed to escape together and I offered to bring him to Elfport, but he said it'd be a better idea to come here instead."

"You said it was closer," I shrug my shoulders a little. Being the center of attention is a new and slightly uncomfortable position for me. Most of the time I just blend into the background. "And I told you already, I won't accept going home if it means you have to give up the chance to rejoin your crew."

"Like I said, he's a sweet kid," Hina smiles at Sakura. "So I said I'd see if he could stay a while with us. Anyway, this is Sakura." She gestures to the giant. "She's my bestest friend ever! She's really kind and caring, but I'd avoid picking a fight if I were you. They say she could be the strongest girl in the whole archipelago."

…Not that I was thinking of fighting her in the first place, but now I'm _definitely_ not pissing her off. I quite like all my limbs intact, thank you very much. I reach out my hand and Sakura grasps it in her own.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Makoto," she nods, a small smile gracing her face. Her hand completely dwarfs mine.

"Likewise." I fight to keep the nervousness out of my expression. Geez, her hands are _really big._ And even if Hina's description is a bit exaggerated, she certainly _looks_ strong enough to crush my hands into tiny, unrecognizable lumps of—

No! No no no, stop thinking like that! There's no point in assuming the worst when I've only known her for all of two minutes!

Yet even with that mental reassurance, I still have to stifle a sigh of relief when she finally releases my hand. It's not that I don't want to be friendly. As much as I want to, it's just difficult to accept this new reality when I grew up on scary stories of pirates coming to snatch up misbehaving children.

But, so far so good, I guess. I should put a little more faith in Hina and her words. 'They're all really nice' is holding up to be true, if only for one person.

"So what are you doing back so early, Hina?" Sakura questions the girl, getting straight to the point.

Hina shares a glance with me. She sweeps some of the loose hair out of her face and then exhales. "I… Sorry, Sakura, but I think I might explain it to you later. In all honesty, I'm kinda pooped right now. All I want to do is go to bed, but I need to go tell the captain about it first and get Makoto sorted out."

The muscular pirate gives a simple nod. "I understand. There's no need to apologize."

"Do you know if she's still awake?"

"I assume so—she normally is at this time, is she not?"

Hina lets out a massive sigh. "What are we going to do with her…?" She shakes her head and grabs me by the forearm. She seems to be doing this a lot tonight. I hope it doesn't become a regular thing… "I'll see you in the morning then, Sakura!"

"Good night, Hina."

With a farewell nod, Sakura heads to a set of stairs that lead down into the ship. She's probably heading to the crew quarters to get some sleep. At least, that's what I'd do in her position. It's really late. Or I guess she could be waking someone else to take her place above deck. That makes me wonder exactly how many people I'm even going to meet here. I hope I don't end up making anyone mad…

Hina tugs me back to reality and drags me and my arm in the opposite direction of where Sakura disappeared to, towards the stern of the ship. She pulls me up a different set of stairs to reach the level raised above the main deck.

"Captain's quarters are on the quarterdeck—that's really the only room up here, plus the poop deck above for steering and stuff. _Hope's Peak_ has two levels below deck. Crew's quarters are on the first," she explains as we walk. "If the captain lets you stay, that'll most likely be where you'll sleep."

I nod along and find myself comparing the layout to the familiar one of the _Sea Star._ The merchant ship was larger with three levels instead of two, but they sound surprisingly similar. I say as much out loud and Hina smiles at my observation.

"Yeah, it probably used to be a merchant ship. Then some other pirates got their hands on it, and—well, we were in need of a new ship, so we stole it and—" She glances back and suddenly pales. "I mean, um… we _acquired_ it. Completely peaceful interaction. They were fine when we left. Mostly."

She stops just in front of the door and positions me near it, cutting off any response I could've had. "Okay, now stay here. I'll go in and speak to her first, and then I'll come get you. Absolutely do _not_ wander off from this spot. That's really important. Got it?"

"Uh huh," I comment. Geez, I did not expect the conversation to take that turn. Hina telling me that she's a pirate is one thing, but it hadn't really hit me until then that she's probably taken part in less-than-honorable activities more than a few times. I'm pretty sure the end of that was sugar-coated for my benefit.

She cups her hands on my shoulders and pats them, as if to reiterate her instructions. She gives me a thumbs up as she moves away and approaches the door. She knocks on it softly, but still loud enough to be heard. "Captain?" she calls out, easing the door open. "It's Hina. I'm back. Can I come in?"

She hovers there for a moment, but then I hear someone's voice from within. It's not clear enough for me to make out, but it must be some sort of invitation to enter as Hina gives me a quick wave before vanishing inside.

And then I'm left alone with the silence and my thoughts.

I walk over to the railing at the edge of the quarterdeck and lean against it. I almost expect the rail to vanish beneath my weight. Everything seems so weird and unreal, like it's all been a big dream and I'm about to wake up any minute. Is that strange, even though I experienced all of this firsthand? I just can't believe how I managed to find my way onto a pirate ship. Me, a baker's son, on a _pirate ship._ If someone had told me this morning that I'd be in this situation, I would've laughed and called them mad.

…Okay, I would've smiled awkwardly and silently continued to sweep. My point's the same regardless.

A yawn forces my jaws wide. I blink my eyes blearily, rubbing at them to ward away the urge to sleep. Hina's got the right idea. Right after this thing is sorted out, the only thing I want to do is sleep for as long as humanly possible. Tonight has lasted way too long and been full of so much… stress and emotional trauma that I barely know how I'm still sane.

As I've done several times tonight when left in silence, I think back to the _Sea Star._ What I thought would be a relatively uneventful job, with the most interesting things being the places we visited, turned into anything but that. There were so many people dying around me. What do I do in a situation like that? The most death I've had to deal with was our family dog and Miss Kinuyo, the old tailor who lived next to the smithy. They both passed on from old age. This was different. I was there—I could have done something to save them. Why… Why couldn't I do anything? Surely there must've been _something_ I could've done. I could have asked Hina, or pointed them out to Kirigiri, or helped them myself! Why?! Why didn't I do anything?!

Because I was scared. I didn't want to die.

I take a deep breath and bury my face into my hands. That's the truth of the matter, isn't it? As much as I didn't want them to die, the people I was only just getting to know, I let them so I didn't have to risk my own life. I can say I wanted to help them all I want, but I don't even know if I'd be able to if I had a second chance. Fear is a powerful thing, and I'm left shivering just at the memory of the terror I felt.

I'm the only one who survived. There's Hina, but she wasn't part of the crew from the start. I'm the only member of the _Sea Star_ who survived.

The only one who gets to keep living.

Gets to keep…

Keep… my…

Kirigiri's object weighs heavily in my pocket. I fish it out and let it hang from its string in front of my face. A small, silver pendant sways in the air, polished to a point where I can almost make out my reflection on it. Raised bumps on the front of it form the image of a flower, a kind I can't identify. Despite the gleam, the metal surface is littered with small dings and scratches. He must've kept it with him for a long time. The string however seems relatively new. I guess it was replaced whenever it got too worn.

I… I made a promise to him. He entrusted this to me. He's counting on me to look after his precious possession, the one he was determined to keep safe even as he stared death in the face. It was his last request, his dying wish. I can't really let him down, can I?

This was something that meant a lot to Jin Kirigiri, but now it means something for me too. A reminder of the tragedy tonight. A memento of the _Sea Star,_ how the people there worked together, laughed together, lived together… and died together. If I'm the one who survived, the least I can do is keep those memories alive, right? Their last moments…

I slip the string over my head and rest the trinket against my chest. I'll keep it with me always. That way, I can keep my promise to him and remember what happened tonight as well.

Something about its design catches my eye again. I lift it and examine the dark spot in the middle of the flower image. At first, I thought it was some stain or a shadow from the flower bumps, but it's actually a tiny hole. Not a pendant, but a locket. Huh, I wonder what's inside. He didn't give me a key with it, so I guess I won't find out.

I drop the locket under my shirt and send a curious glance at the door. It's been about ten minutes now. I wonder what they're talking about. I can hear muffled sounds from inside, but I don't really want to eavesdrop. I'm already technically intruding, so the last thing I want to do is give them any reason to kick me off.

My eyes scan over the main deck of _Hope's Peak._ The silence only adds to the surrealism I was feeling earlier. Even aboard the _Sea Star,_ I could still hear sailors up and about in the dead of night. But I don't think there's a single soul up here besides me. I look towards the poop deck and crow's nest in concern. Is that safe? Shouldn't there be someone to steer and to keep watch? Sakura was up here earlier, but she's gone below deck. Maybe she _is_ waking someone up but they're taking a while to—

The sound of creaking wood interrupts my thoughts and my gaze immediately shoots towards the sound. Hina's head pokes out of the gap in the doorway, scanning around for a moment before her eyes rest on me.

"Come on in," she says, holding the door a bit wider. My foot shuffles an inch forward and I hesitate. Hina said those pirates were _mostly_ fine earlier… Argh, wait, stop it! Don't think like that! You trust Hina and she said everything would turn out all right! I can't second-guess myself at a time like this. It's too late to back out now.

The moment passes. I move towards her, taking my first, cautious steps into the captain's quarters.

Like the deck outside, lanterns on the walls bathe the room in a dull light, allowing me to comfortably see it in its entirety. It's pretty empty in terms of furniture. There's a desk and a chair off to the right, but that's about it. Scraps of paper and other small objects litter the tabletop, casting shadows from the light of the lantern placed nearby. The only other thing of note is a curtain hanging off a railing on the left wall. It… looks like there's some space behind it, but that's all I can tell.

A short distance from the table is the only other person in the room. A young woman with long, lavender hair braided together and a dark purple longcoat that brushes against the back of her knees. The most striking thing about her, though, is the fact she appears to be the same age as me and Hina—someone in their late teens, barely even an adult. Is this really the captain of a pirate ship?

From the moment I step into the room, I can practically feel her intense gaze burn into me, watching me with sharp, purple eyes. To say it unnerves me is an understatement. I really wish that Hina's 'they're all really nice' sentiment could've lasted a little longer.

"So…"

Her voice cuts through the silence in the room and startles me back to reality. Instead of continuing, she pauses afterward, as if knowing it would cause my heart to beat faster. "Makoto, was it?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am," I stutter. How exactly do I address her…?

"Kyoko," she introduces herself. "I'm the captain of _Hope's Peak."_

…Really? I guess I expected as much—she _is_ the only other person in here, and I didn't see anyone exit the room. But, in all honesty, I still have trouble believing it. She hardly looks much older than me. How can a teenager be the captain of a pirate ship?

Hina blanches from beside me. Kyoko's eyes narrow and she folds her arms across her chest. "Are you trying to insinuate something…?" The movement causes her longcoat to flutter and momentarily showcase the shiny hilt of a sword.

I… said that out loud.

 _I said that out loud._

Something pounds against my chest. Is that my heart? I think it's trying to escape the confines of my body which is exactly what I want to do at this very moment.

"N-NO, of course n—I-I was, I mean— _I-I'm very sorry!"_ I bow my head, eyes squeezed shut and every muscle paralyzed. I'm dead. I'm _so_ dead. She's gonna kill me. I survived almost being blown up and almost capsizing twenty times, but now _this happens!_ All I wanted to do was make sure Hina got to her friends safely! Oh god, why did I think coming aboard a pirate ship was a good idea?!

The sound of footsteps quickly getting louder reaches my ears and I tense further. I don't want to die…!

A gloved hand carefully but firmly grasps my chin and forces my head up. I open my eyes. Hazel green meets vibrant purple from a distance of half a foot.

Huh, she's taller than me.

 _WHY AM I FOCUSING ON A DETAIL LIKE THAT NOW OF ALL TIMES?!_

"I'll ignore that little comment of yours on account of the event that took place tonight." Her voice is quiet and cold and it terrifies me more than if she was yelling at me. Her grip on my chin tightens slightly. "But don't think you'll be so lucky if I hear something like that out of you again. Understood?"

"A-Aye…"

"Good." She lets go of me and walks away. The black ribbon securing her braid flutters as she turns. "I'm glad we reached an understanding peacefully."

I let out a quiet sigh of relief. I think _this_ is what Hina meant when she said those pirates were 'mostly' fine. Physically fine but emotionally scarred for life. With this and the attack on the _Sea Star,_ I think I've met my fear quota for the next six years. I steal a glance at the brown-haired girl beside me. Her face is a mix of relief, terror, and the expression someone gets when they watch a puppy narrowly avoid getting trampled by a horse-pulled wagon.

"Now, back to business," Kyoko says curtly, facing us again. "Hina explained to me what happened tonight on the _Sea Star._ With everything that occurred, she now expects me to let you stay here and treat you as a guest until an unspecified time where we can drop you off at port. Is that correct?"

"I… guess so, yeah." I share a glance with Hina. That's a pretty accurate summary of my situation.

"And what do I get out of it?"

…Huh?

"The world doesn't work for free, Makoto," Kyoko explains simply when I don't say anything. "Even when people _say_ they'll do something for nothing, they tend to have an ulterior motive—be it money, resources, or simply being owed a favor. People don't do things out of the kindness of their hearts. Especially pirates. Well…" She pauses briefly, sending a glance at Hina, who is suddenly very interested in her shoes. " _Most_ pirates."

I shift my gaze between the two girls. It sounds like Hina might've been lectured or scolded about her actions while I was waiting outside. I hope she's not in trouble or anything. That's the last thing I want to cause with my presence.

Then again, given Hina's disposition, it wouldn't surprise me to find out she's had this conversation in the past.

Kyoko returns her attention to me. "I'm told you've spent some time at sea?"

I don't know if five days gives me any room to say I have experience, but… "A-A short time, yeah."

"So you surely understand that ships must survive on finite supplies."

"I… do."

Kyoko nods, satisfied with that response, and continues, "We may have a slight advantage compared to other ships, but we still face a greater difficulty as pirates. Places that we can restock safely at are few and far between. If I let you stay, that means our supplies are spread thinner than they already are—and for an unspecified time period, if I may remind you. You could be here two days or two months. I am the captain, and thus, I have a responsibility to the welfare of my crew. I have no such obligations towards you. Unless there's a reasonable benefit to keeping you around, I'm afraid you're out of luck."

She tilts her head and observes me. "So what do you offer to me that makes it worthwhile to look after you?"

And now everything rides on my ability to sell myself. No pressure. I mean, I get the logic behind why she's doing this, but I am… really screwed. What exactly am I supposed to say? 'I'm a 17-year-old and my extra ordinary personality is matched only by my extraordinary bad luck'? Yeah, that'll _definitely_ win her over.

But I can't just give her _nothing,_ because then I'm _guaranteed_ to never get a lift back home. Oh dear, I think she's beginning to get impatient with me. It's hard to tell because her face doesn't change much from that neutral expression. Argh, come on, Makoto! You've got to give her _something!_ Just say anything!

"I… don't have any amazing talents or special skills," I end up admitting. "But I'll work hard with whatever jobs I get, and I'm good at getting along with others… And I guess the one thing I'd really say is that I'm more optimistic than most people."

…Okay, maybe I could have done better than _anything._

Well, it's too late to take it back now. Then again, there's not much I can add to that either. I'm really not anything special, so that's probably the most accurate description I can come up with. I remain silent and try to gauge the reactions of the room's other occupants. Hina looks like how I feel: worried and nervous beyond belief. And the captain… Well, I know about as much as her expression will tell me—which is absolutely nothing.

There is no way this will convince her.

When she does speak again, it's not to me but to the other pirate in the room. "Hina, you're dismissed."

Her head jerks up. "Huh?! But Kyoko—!"

" _Hina…"_

At the slight edge to her voice, Hina backs down immediately. Letting out a defeated sigh and looking absolutely miserable, she mumbles, "Aye, Captain."

As she walks towards the door, she shoots me a look I can only describe as apologetic. My heart clenches as I watch her leave. She shouldn't be apologizing. She's got nothing to feel sorry about! She saved my life and had my best interests at heart since we escaped, there's no way I could _blame_ her for anything! Before I can even begin to convey this through words or smiles or anything, however, she's already gone and the door closes with a solid thud.

And then it hits me.

I am alone in a room with a pirate.

After getting attacked by pirates and having the _Sea Star_ blown up by pirates, my night is ending with me on a pirate ship with the pirate captain who is armed and I'm not, the one person who could possibly keep me alive just left, and I have no escape strategy whatsoever.

Again, _why_ did I think this was a good idea?

When I turn back to said pirate captain, she's watching me with a raised eyebrow, her arms crossed once again. "You _must_ be optimistic to go with a short spiel like that," she states. "I'll admit, I'm curious as to how you persuaded the _Sea Star_ to hire you."

"I don't think 'persuaded' is the right word," I say cautiously. Keep calm, Makoto. You can do this. Alone in a room with the captain of a pirate crew? No problem!

Before right now, I did not think it was possible for your mental voice to crack.

I really hope we can just drop this subject, though. That day was _extremely embarrassing._ I can barely handle acknowledging that incident to myself, let alone share it with some stranger I hardly know. And I've already apparently given her a bad impression of me with my little self-description. The last thing I need is for her to know the exact extent of damage my luck can cause.

To my growing panic, Kyoko gives me a knowing smile. Not really one of amusement, at least that I can tell, but it definitely resembles the smile I'd expect from someone who witnessed exactly what happened that day firsthand.

"No? What word would you use then?" she casually asks.

Okay, wow, this is really different from what I was expecting. I didn't think she'd drop her seriousness in order to poke fun at me. She couldn't have been there, right? There's no way. She's got to be messing with me. I… Gah, I hope my face isn't as red as it feels. "Look," I stammer nervously, "I don't want to be rude or anything, b-but, um… Could we… change the subject…?"

Kyoko drops the smile and teasing to regain her professionalism. "Very well."

Thank goodness, there is a god.

"In that case, returning to your attempt to convince me of your worth…"

Aaaand I'm back in hell. My embarrassment is replaced by my anxiety from before, though funnily enough, I think it's slightly diminished. I'm still a nervous wreck, but I feel I can stay true to my claim of optimism and hope for a good outcome.

Kyoko rests her chin on her knuckles in thought, keeping her eyes on me the whole time. Finally she says, "You should know that you actually revealed quite a bit more about yourself than just what you told me."

"W-What do you mean by that?" I ask, the confusion evident in my voice.

She holds up one finger. "For example, you told me right off the bat that you're not talented—quite the opposite, actually. You're honest. You didn't try to fabricate anything to increase your chances." She pauses briefly and hums. "Perhaps a bit _too_ honest."

"Uh…"

She continues despite my minor interruption. "Secondly, you're rather trusting. You don't know much about Hina, and you certainly don't know anything about me or anyone else on this ship—and yet here you are. Hina explained to me how you didn't interact much before tonight, bar a brief exchange on your first day, but you trusted her in your escape and you trusted her to get you home. Need I go on?"

"N-No, that's enough…" Enough to make me incredibly self-conscious of every action I've ever made. Do any of the crew even have privacy with this girl around?

"And…" Kyoko's eyes harden. "You have a little enmity towards pirates."

Oh no. I swallow thickly. "U-Uh, then Hina told you about—?"

"About your outburst after your escape?" she interrupts. "Yes, she may have mentioned that."

This is just fantastic. Why did I have to open my big mouth back then? I usually avoid letting my emotions get the better of me, because I know that if I let them take control of my words, I'll end up regretting it and it will come back to bite me in the butt. And this is biting me _hard._ I wait for her to continue, to tear into me and deny my request for shelter and make me walk the plank—but she does none of that. She just stands in silence, arms crossed, waiting for something. Actually, she's looking at me almost expectantly, as if she's waiting for _me_ to do something. Does she want me to say something…? Explain myself?

"All my life, there's never been a moment where news about pirates has been good news," I start, fiddling with my fingers as I speak. "Even as a child, I was told stories about how they'd come and get me if I misbehaved. Before tonight, I'd never met a pirate personally, but I'd hear about how they burned towns and attacked people and that made me so angry because what did those people do to deserve it? And then, I got to witness an attack firsthand… and it certainly hasn't changed my opinion much."

I look up from the floor and meet Kyoko's eyes. They hold the tiniest hint of curiosity, and she remains silent, so I take both as a sign to continue on.

"Spending time with Hina has… opened my eyes a bit," I admit. "I met her before I knew she was a pirate, and I can't say how accepting I would be if I _hadn't_ met her beforehand, but she is a nice person and a good friend. She's told me that not all pirates fit the same definition of malicious criminals, and I want to believe that." I sigh and bite the inside of my cheek. "It's just hard to overturn years of prejudice in a single night."

Once again, the room falls into silence, with me waiting for Kyoko to speak. She takes her time, closing her eyes as she mulls over my words. "So the bottom line is you still harbor some hatred towards pirates."

"I…" My chances of staying are already ruined and I basically already admitted it. There's no harm in being honest. "Yes."

"Hmm…" Kyoko lets out a long, low hum as she twirls her unbraided hair around her finger. "I should hope that won't be an issue when you spend time with the others."

"N-No, like I said, I'm trying to—"

Wait.

Hang on, what did she just say?

"Wait, with the others…? D-Do you mean you're letting me stay?!" I question, barely able to keep a handle on my excitement. She doesn't mean…

She folds her arms across her chest. "I won't tolerate disrespectful behavior to my crew."

Oh my god. She does mean. "I-I, uh, absolutely! I understand!"

"And I expect you to complete a share of the chores each and every day you remain here."

"Of course!" I can't keep the grin off my face. "Oh, thank you so much!"

It seems my elation is contagious as a small smirk works its way onto Kyoko's face. "I didn't think you'd be so excited about work."

I laugh lightly and wave my hands with slight embarrassment. "I'm just glad this turned out well. And about the chores, I was expecting to work on a ship for a couple of months anyway, so it's not a big issue."

"You truly have a positive outlook on things, don't you?"

My chuckles turn sheepish and I rub the back of my neck. My expression changes when a huge yawn overtakes me. When I close my mouth again, I'm left with an overwhelming tiredness. It seems like this whole talk has made me even more exhausted than before.

"I suppose it is getting rather late," Kyoko remarks with a glance out the window. She looks off to the side and thinks for a moment. "Unfortunately, with your arrival being unexpected, we don't have any additional rooms or beds prepared."

"No, that's all right," I argue. It _was_ something I thought about briefly while I was waiting outside. I don't want to be a bother. Being able to stay here is good enough for me, so I don't particularly mind where I end up sleeping. I fight back another yawn and mumble, "I can just sleep in the cargo hold or something…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Kyoko dismisses instantly. "The deal was to treat you as a guest. The only ones who sleep in the hold are prisoners. No, you'll sleep in here."

With that, she walks over to the other side of the room. The prisoner comment catches me off guard so it takes me a moment to process her following statement. Then it takes me _another_ few moments to repeat it in my head in case I misheard it. "H-Huh?"

Kyoko pulls back the curtain I saw earlier, the metal hoops attached to it scraping against the wooden pole holding it up. The action reveals a relatively large cubby hole, large enough to house a hammock which sways along with the motion of the ship.

"You'll sleep here for the night," she repeats. "And then, in the morning, you'll begin with whatever jobs are required of you. Understood?"

I stopped following along ages ago because I am still struggling to comprehend the first part of what she said. "W-Wait, wha—Sleep _here?"_

But this is the _captain's_ bed. Which makes it _her bed._

 _I can't sleep in her bed!_

Kyoko raises an eyebrow at me. "You're not questioning me, are you?"

The question leaves me stuttering for a suitable response before I realize that she probably won't let me sleep anywhere but here, no matter what excuse I give her. Damn it. I feel my face go red and mumble, "N-No…"

She gives me a small, satisfied nod and holds her hand out to the hammock expectantly. I trudge over to it, feeling rather defeated. She _is_ the one giving me a place to stay, though. I can't really argue with her. As I sit on the hammock and Kyoko moves to draw the curtain, I look up at her.

"Where are you going to sleep?" I ask just as she grabs the fabric. She stops and makes eye contact with me.

"I'll be fine," she brushes off the question, tugging the curtain across again. "You worry about yourself. You've had a long night after all, and daybreak isn't far off."

I wait for a moment and listen to her receding footsteps. When I hear a chair scraping against the wooden floor, I pull the shoes off of my feet and lie down on the hammock. I rest my head, pull the thin blanket up to my chin and drift off to the sound of rustling paper.

* * *

"…oto."

A small, soft sound, barely louder than a whisper, suddenly invades the calm reaches of my dream. A small frown appears on my face as I curl up. The last thing I want to do right now is wake up, especially when it only feels like I just fell asleep. But the voice sounds again, a little louder this time.

"Makoto."

Is that Komaru…? She's probably eager to mess around with me or make me help her bake or something, but I'm too tired at the moment. Why can't she just let me sleep? I instinctively tighten my grip on the blanket. She'll just have to wait, I can play with her later.

Instead of the blanket being flung off like I'm used to, the bed I'm lying in is suddenly pulled out from underneath me and I'm sent to the wooden floor in a tangle of sheets and limbs.

"Ack—! Ouch! I… What—?!" I splutter, dazed from the rude and abrupt fling to consciousness as well as the tumble to the ground. How did that even happen?! It's only then that I register the slight swaying of the floor and the muted sound of the ocean. O-Oh right, I'm on a boat, not at home…

"You're awake," a familiar voice interrupts my train of thought. I pull the blanket off of my head and my vision focuses on a young woman with braided purple hair, staring down at me. " _Finally."_

"Huh…?" I mumble to myself in confusion. Wait, but that doesn't make any sense. If I'm on a boat, then it should be the _Sea Star,_ but I've never seen her before. Who is she?

It takes a moment—longer than I'd like to admit, really—but the events of the previous night eventually come back to me like a smack to the head. "A-Ah!" I shout. "Last night…! And I… Y-You're—!"

"Yes, welcome back to reality," Kyoko comments dryly. She… doesn't look very impressed with me.

"S-Sorry!" I blurt out, jumping to my feet. "I didn't mean to oversleep!"

Her mouth presses into a small line, scrutinizing me with her icy stare. I try my best not to squirm in place. She eventually turns away with a small sigh. "I suppose I'll overlook it this one time. No doubt you were left exhausted after what you went through. Don't expect the same treatment in the future, however, or you may find yourself drenched in saltwater."

Is she saying she'd dump water on me or toss me into the ocean to wake me up…? I really don't like either prospect. Regardless, the reminder of last night's disaster makes my expression darken. It's still hard to believe how quickly everything happened. If Hina hadn't been there… I'll have to thank her for everything she's done for me. And since I'll be staying here a while—again, thanks to her actions—I'll have plenty of opportunities to show my appreciation.

I look up and Kyoko's staring at me again. I feel uncomfortable from the attention, so I try to divert it by asking, "So um, what time is it?"

"Just before sunrise."

"Oh, all ri—Wait, what?!" I can't help the surprised shout, but _before sunrise?!_ And she thinks this is oversleeping?! How the hell am I going to manage this? The _Sea Star's_ crew wasn't this cruel!

"I'm only joking," Kyoko responds as she turns and walks to her desk. "Actually, it's just over an hour after sunrise."

I feel the worry drain out of me, only to be replaced by relief and minute annoyance. Of course it's just a joke. Thanks for that panic attack early in the morning. Kyoko stops in front of her desk and rearranges some things. I watch her for a moment before my focus drifts, pausing on something that seems rather out of place—the lantern on the desk. For some reason, it's still lit.

"Did you…?"

"Hmm?"

"A-Ah, never mind," I respond when she turns to look at me, waving my hands in front of me. I've really got to think about what I say before I go blurting it out. I made an _amazing_ first impression that way, and I'd rather not have a repeat performance. So instead, I reword my inquiry of whether she got any sleep into an apology. "Actually, I'm sorry about taking your bed…"

"Don't let something like that bother you. I offered, so there's no need to apologize," Kyoko says. Yeah, but if me sleeping in her bed made her stay awake all night, that does kind of bother me.

She finishes her task at the desk and heads for the door. She rests her hand on the handle and continues, "Come on. _Hope's Peak_ isn't the biggest ship, but there's still much work to be done."

"Uh, right," I reply somewhat hesitantly. I can't say I share the enthusiasm to start working, but I can't argue with her. That was the deal, after all. I hurry to stand beside her and, after a quick once-over of me, she pushes open the door and exits.

The ship was beautiful when I first saw it, glowing against the night sky and dark ocean, but in the daylight I can fully appreciate every detail. The maze of rigging high above stretches across like a forest canopy, with two towering masts to play the part of tree trunks. The large canvas sails are bundled up tightly except for one billowing on the main mast, the one closest to the stern. Everything is even more impressive when it's illuminated in the morning sun. If I tilt my head up, I can see a large piece of cloth flapping in the wind—a pale lavender color with bold black shapes depicting a hill to the left and a black star and moon in the top right. _Hope's Peak's_ flag. It definitely fits the name of the ship.

As Kyoko leads me down the stairs to the main deck, I spot a familiar red-jacketed figure. She's leaning against the mast with her arms crossed, looking uncharacteristically deep in thought.

"Hina!"

Her head turns at my call and she brightens when she recognizes me. Before I even know what's happening, she crashes into me with the force of a fired cannonball. I can barely keep myself from falling over.

"Makoto!" she shouts happily, squeezing the life out of me. All too quickly, she lets me go and faces Kyoko. "Does this mean he can stay?"

"So long as he does his share of chores," Kyoko nods.

"Woohoo!" Hina cheers and jumps in the air. For a moment, it looks like she wants to give Kyoko the same courtesy she greeted me with, but all it takes is a sharp look and she backs off with a sheepish grin. A reaction like that tells me that expressive Hina has clashed with reserved Kyoko before and the captain doesn't want to deal with it this morning.

"So what have you got planned for him? Meeting the others? Tour of the ship? Let me do that for you! I'm sure you've got some super important captain stuff to do," Hina offers excitedly.

Kyoko remains silent for a moment, deep in thought, before she sends a glance my way. "You met Sakura last night, correct? Why don't you go reintroduce yourself? She's up at the helm. You can meet Keizo while you're there."

I look towards Hina and she waves her hand at me in a 'go on!' sort of way. I think I can see what's going on here—there are things to be discussed that they don't want me to know about. I can respect that. I nod at them and leave, climbing up the steps again to reach the topmost deck. There I see a tall blond boy in his late teens with his hands on the steering wheel, guiding the ship through the waves with ease. Sakura stands nearby, a good head taller than him.

No doubt noticing my approach in advance, Sakura greets me first with a smile. "Good morning, Makoto."

"Yeah, good morning. I came to say hi real quick and meet you," I say, directing the last bit of my sentence to the blond. "You're… Keizo, right?"

"So this is the reason we've turned around, huh?" He takes his left hand off the wheel and shakes my hand. "Good to meet you. Yep, I'm Keizo. I'm the navigator on _Hope's Peak."_

"Hi, I'm Makoto."

Keizo releases my hand and fixes the bandana wrapped around his forehead. "The captain was here earlier and explained the situation. You've got guts coming here after what you went through, I'll give you that."

"Um… Thanks?" Kyoko talked to him earlier, huh? I suppose everyone here has got to find out who I am sooner or later. And Keizo's designated job has got me wondering now… I turn to the girl nearby. "Hey, Sakura? If Keizo's the navigator, what do you do?"

"My job is more general than Keizo's is," she replies, her voice low. "But I usually handle anything that requires a great deal of strength." Sakura gestures above our heads, to the top of the masts. "I just finished taking down that sail several minutes ago, in fact. I was talking with Keizo about how many more I should untie before you came along."

"O-Oh, I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?"

Sakura gives a warm smile that soothes my growing concern. "It is all right."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Keizo says dismissively. "I was still deciding on my answer. Sakura, I think the foresail and the gaff sail below it should be good enough," he addresses the girl. "The captain said we weren't in a rush for time and we'll make it back to Speswynn with enough of it to spare."

The name of my hometown instantly grabs my attention. "Speswynn?"

Keizo looks at me with a hesitant eyebrow raised. "Yeah, that's where you want to go, right? It's what the captain said…"

"Y-Yes, it is. I just…" When I notice his confusion only growing, I shake my head with a smile. "No, never mind. It's nothing."

Keizo stares at me for a little while longer before giving a shrug and dismissing the subject.

It's not nothing, but it's not really something that concerns him. I'm just surprised that we're heading straight back to Speswynn. The way Kyoko explained it last night made it clear that her priorities lay with the crew's needs before mine. I thought I'd be stuck here traveling wherever the pirates needed to go for several months, not arriving home in several days. I wonder why she decided to turn around?

I peek over my shoulder to where Kyoko and Hina are still deep in discussion. Their heads are close together so they can hear each other's hushed words. I don't think Kyoko would appreciate me going back at the moment—but at the same time, Keizo and Sakura are clearly still busy and I don't want to bother them any longer.

Sakura notices me shuffling my feet awkwardly and asks, "Was there anything else you wished to speak about?"

"Uh, well…" If she's offering, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't ask a question. "What does Hina do then?"

Throughout the conversation, Sakura's face has mostly remained neutral, kind of like Kyoko's. But the moment I mention the brown-haired girl who brought me here, I can see her expression brighten like a fire flickering to life. "Ah, Hina. Like me, she doesn't have a set job to do. However, it would be accurate to call her Kyoko's first mate."

"Oh, okay." She's like what Jukodo was to Kirigiri on the _Sea Star._ A second-in-command of sorts. When she said she wasn't the captain, she made it sound like she was just a regular member of the crew, not a step below captain.

Keizo glances towards me and laughs. "Don't let Hina pull a fast one on you, though," he warns. "The captain's having you do odd jobs, right? She won't want you to do anything too out there. If Hina ever tells you to hang upside-down from the rigging or use your clothes to dry the dishes, don't believe her."

I… don't think Hina would do that. She's not that kind of person. She's been nothing but nice to me since I met her. Plus, she was with me when I first met Kyoko. Hina knows how seriously I'm going to take this. She wouldn't mess with me like that.

Then again… there were those times where she tried to capsize our boat.

Those _many_ times.

"Has she done that before?" I hesitantly ask. "Why would Kyoko let her have that much power if she just misuses it?"

"She doesn't always have that power," he corrects me. "Most of the time, 'first mate' is just a title—unless the captain says so, Hina doesn't have any authority over you."

"But don't crews normally have some sort of rank system?" At least that's how it worked on the _Sea Star._ Kirigiri was the one in charge of everything aboard the ship with Jukodo just a rank below him. Then authority tended to go to the sailors who'd been on the ship the longest and then all the way down to the greenhorns with no experience—in other words, me.

"Not on _Hope's Peak,"_ Sakura explains. "Common sense and decency apply if someone with more experience asks you to carry out a job, but otherwise we are all on equal grounds. Kyoko is the only one who truly carries any authority."

"There'll be times when the captain _lets_ her order people around," Keizo admits. He grins at me. "But you'll know when that is."

Well, that knowledge is much appreciated. But now I'm curious as to why he'd bring it up in the first place if it never happens. I ask him as much and Keizo's grin grows a little.

"The crew know what's going on in terms of authority. On the other hand, _you_ don't. Hina will probably take advantage of that for a few laughs." Keizo brushes a few strands of hair out of his face and shifts his bandana a little higher. "That goes for the others as well. Listen to their requests but try not to be fooled by the ridiculous ones."

I nod at him. "Thanks for the head's up." Keizo just gives me a thumbs up in response.

"Hey, Makoto!"

The call distracts me and I look behind to see Hina waving from the main deck. "We can get started if you're ready!" she shouts.

I turn back to my two conversation partners and rub the back of my head. "I guess that's my cue to go then."

Sakura nods. "There will be plenty of chances to talk later. I look forward to it."

Keizo gives a short wave. "See you around, Makoto."

I say my own farewells and hurry down the stairs, the boards creaking with each step. Once I reach the main deck where Hina is waiting for me, I scan the area, noticing the absence of a certain someone. "Where's Kyoko?"

"Off doing captain-y stuff," she answers vaguely. "But that's not something you need to worry about." She throws out her arms with a flourish and announces, "Time to start Aoi Asahina's Wonderful and Amazing Tour of _Hope's Peak!"_

I put my hand near my mouth to hide my smile, but a few chuckles escape. "Wonderful and amazing?"

She shoves my shoulder good-naturedly. "Hush, you! Now, first thing on the agenda: getting some grub into that stomach of yours!" Hina pokes my belly playfully, and as if on cue it lets out a loud grumble. She giggles and my face heats up with embarrassment. How the tables have turned. "The others will be having breakfast right now, so we can introduce you to them all at once! Two birds, one stone!"

Hina grabs onto my forearm—once again—and pulls me down below deck. With no windows down under, the hallway gets darker the further we go. More lanterns hang from the walls at regular intervals but none of them are lit at the moment.

"Down and to the left is a door that leads to the sleeping quarters, but I'm pretty sure you knew that already," she explains as we walk. "Someone will take you there at the end of the day to make sure you don't get lost, but we're heading to—"

"Wait, sorry, hold on," I interrupt. She turns to me quizzically. "Why would I know where the sleeping quarters are?"

Her confusion doesn't clear up with my question. In fact, it only seems to increase. "What do you mean? Didn't you sleep there last night?"

"Uh, no," I reply. Didn't she know this? I thought it would've been quite obvious considering who's room I walked out of this morning. "Kyoko made me sleep in her room."

Her jaw drops down to the floor.

" _Kyoko_ let you sleep in her _bed?"_ she whispers with a mix of terror and awe in her voice.

"Um. Yes?" I wasn't aware it was a big enough deal to warrant that kind of reaction.

"Hina? That you?"

Our heads jerk to the end of the hall where a guy even taller than Keizo walks towards us. As he gets closer, it's more obvious that he's about Sakura's height, though I can't say who's taller. The most eye-catching thing about him is his hair—part of it is dark at the back and reaches just above his shoulders, which is not that strange, but then there's the rest of it at the front that just _sticks out,_ all light brown and fluffy and _how does it do that?_

He stops in front of us and grins at Hina. "Hey, didn't expect to see you back around here for ages! What're you doin'—Wait, what's with you?" he asks, noticing her expression.

I don't think she quite realizes he's there, so caught up in whatever astonishment she's feeling. "He slept in _Kyoko's bed,"_ Hina whispers again.

"What?!" The guy immediately rounds on me and his face explodes red. Oh geez. Help. "What the fuck were you doing sleeping in a chick's bed?! _Especially_ the _captain's!"_

"She told me to!" I yell out frantically in my defense. God, please don't hit me! "I didn't _want_ to but she wouldn't take no for an answer!"

"Likely story!" The cracks of his knuckles sound so much louder in the close confines of the hallway. "What's his deal, Hina? Stowaway? Prisoner? Only place he'll end up is the bottom of the sea when _I'm_ through with him!"

"Whoa, wait, hold on!" Hina snaps out of her stupor at the threats and jumps between us, waving her arms to ward him off. "Relax! He's a good kid! And I saw Kyoko just now, she would've told me if he did anything bad!"

That seems to make him back off a bit. "You sure?" he asks dubiously.

"Of course I'm sure!"

"A'ight then…" He finally lowers his fists and they hang awkwardly by his sides.

"Sorry I zoned out," Hina rubs her neck and apologizes to me. "It took me by surprise a bit. I just thought you were sleeping in one of the empty rooms down here."

I let out a weak laugh and wave her off. I suppose with a person like Kyoko as their captain, _someone's_ going to have picked up her ability to inflict total fear in me. Just my luck. "It's fine."

"Say, Hina…" The guy bends at the hip and gets so close to my face his hair is almost poking my forehead. He squints his purple eyes at me, focusing on me but addressing Hina. "Who _is_ the little shit?"

"L- _Little…?"_ I-I'm not _that_ short, am I? I mean, Komaru's taller than me… but I can still grow a little more… right?

"Don't mind him," Hina sighs and gives him a solid shove. It's strong enough for the big guy to actually shuffle his foot to regain his balance. I don't think she appreciated the height joke either, considering she's as tall as I am. She gestures to him as she leads us down the hall again. "This is Mondo, _Hope's Peak's_ resident potty mouth. He cusses like a sailor and drinks like one too."

"Drinks?"

Hina glances back and spots my scrunched up expression. "Not a fan?"

"Not really," I reply with a small shrug.

"Any reason?" Mondo asks, curious. Calmed down, he seems like a completely different person from his earlier rage-induced state. "Tastes like crap? Did some embarrassing shit?"

"Ah, I was just raised that way. My parents never really did so I didn't either." Plenty of people around Speswynn sure did though, so I know what the consequences are. And I wanted to be a good role model for Komaru—the last thing I want to see is my little sister stumbling around with the balance and mental state of a two-year-old. The _Sea Star_ was actually the first time I drank any alcohol and the taste was definitely something I wasn't used to. That was about the time I talked with Jukodo about limiting the alcohol in my water rations.

Hina's expression changes a little. "Parents, huh?" Her tone of voice carries a hint of something I can't identify, but the sound of it makes me long to see my family again.

Mondo, on the other hand, lets out a snort. "I'm glad it was my bro lookin' after me."

"Oh… did you, um, not have…?" Wait, no, bad question, abort, _abort—_

"Nah, I had a mom." He scratches behind his ear as he speaks. "She was great and shit, but when we grew up, Daiya was always there for me and teachin' me stuff."

Phew… I'm glad he didn't get mad again. He already threatened to punch me once, I'd rather not have it actually happen. That question could've really turned out a lot worse than it did. I think I'm getting better at thinking before I blurt out stuff, but only marginally.

"Well, here we are!" Hina stops in front of a door and throws it open, the thud echoing through the walls of the ship. "Hey guys, guess who's back!"

A clamor rises from inside the room at her dramatic entrance. Surprised and cheerful greetings are tossed around from the room's occupants as Hina walks in. I trail in behind her and Mondo shuts the door behind him, immediately heading for the large table in the center of the room.

One of the guys seated, with fiery red hair, snickers when he catches sight of him. "Mondo, who're you trying to impress?" he calls.

"Shut the fuck up, Leon!" Mondo shouts at him and sits down loudly. A girl with curly black hair looks up at him from across the table.

"Mondo?" Her voice is quiet but the brusque tone which she speaks with catches his attention regardless. "You're not wearing a shirt."

"Hah?" That actually causes him to look down and realize that his tanned and very muscular chest is out in the open for all to see, as it has been since I first saw him. "Ah, goddamn it! Hina, why the fuck didn't you tell me?!"

She grins. "'Cause it was funny."

"For fuck's sake…" Grumbling some more curses under his breath, Mondo heaves himself out of his seat and leaves the room with a slam of the door.

Hina laughs and wraps her arm around my shoulders, gesturing to the room. "So this is our kitchen. We eat breakfast and dinner here. Lunch tends to happen at different times of the day for some of us, so there's not really a designated time for that. We just eat when we get a break."

My eyes widen. "This is the kitchen?"

"I just said that."

"And you have, like, actual cooked food? Like right now?"

The thick, sweet aroma of cooked food is quickly reminding my stomach that its last meal was mid-afternoon yesterday and currently floating in chunks somewhere in the ocean. Can a stomach speak to you? Because I swear the grumbles sound more like, _Feed me, Makoto!_

Hina laughs again at my eagerness. "Sure do!" She turns to the back of the room where the smell of food is originating from. Along the wall are some tables, much smaller than the one in the middle, arranged to form a workspace for the teenager currently using it. "Noriaki! Think you can whip something up for our famished friend?"

The guy turns when he hears his name called. He spots Hina and I near the door and gives a quick nod. Hina leads me to the large table and sits me down in an empty space near the others and plops down next to me. Starting from my right, there's the quiet black-haired girl, a guy with glasses who's busy trying to make some kind of tower with the spare wooden plates, the redhead whose name I think is Leon, and then Hina to my left.

My arrival in the room drew everyone's attention already, but it's only when I sit down that they truly focus on me—except for the glasses guy, but I think he's interested too, given the glances he keeps shooting in my direction. "Who're you?" the redhead asks bluntly.

Hina clears her throat and places a hand on my back. "All right, guys, this is Makoto! I met him during my last job and the ship we were on got sunk, so he came here and the captain's agreed to give him a lift back to Speswynn."

"To Speswynn?" the redhead questions. His eyebrows furrow and he looks me over. "You from there or is that just the closest port?"

"Uh… I'm from there," I answer after a brief hesitation. There shouldn't be any problem with telling him that, right?

He nods and falls silent after that. Okay, well that was weird. Hina shoots him a strange look but shakes her head dismissively. "Anywayyy… You might've heard Mondo mention his name, but this is Leon. A true example of your average teenager: he tends to laze around until Kyoko or I tell him to get on with his chores."

"Hey!" Leon shouts in protest. "That's a pretty cruddy introduction!"

"Can't really be cruddy if i's true, mate," the other guy interjects, barely sparing him a glance from his admittedly impressive tower. His voice carries with it a strong accent I've not heard before.

Leon glares at him. "No one asked for your opinion."

"Knock it off, you two," the girl scolds, leaving little room for argument.

The glasses guy raises his hands up in defeat. "A'ight, a'ight…"

"Whatever…" the redhead mutters.

Hina rolls her eyes. "Honestly though, he's a pretty cool guy. He's got a crazy good throwing arm, too," she adds. "He could throw a pebble from the top of the foremast and _still_ be able to knock an apple out of your hand without even touching you."

"His aim is somethin' I can attest to," the guy chips in. His eyes hold a glint of mischief. "I've seen it fer meself."

Leon apparently sees a deeper meaning to his words and fumes. "I thought I told you to shut it! And that was just one time!"

"Ryozo, that's enough," the girl interrupts again. "Stop provoking him."

He waves his hands in an appeasing manner, but the grin doesn't seem as sincere. "Now, come on, I wasn'—"

"I'll knock over your tower."

His face instantly falls. "You wouldn'."

She doesn't back down. "You'll have to pick it all up and start over. From the beginning. And I won't be helping you this time."

"A-A'ight, I'll lay off, I promise," he says quickly. His arm casually stretches across the table between her and his tower. "And tha threat wasn' needed. I would've stopped when you said so tha first time."

The girl merely hums and says nothing more.

"That's Ryozo," Hina carries on once the show has stopped. "As you can see, he's a bit of a troublemaker. We can't do much about it, and I guess it makes things interesting. He disappears like a freaking ninja so expect to be asked if you've seen him many times in the next few days."

"I don' _disappear,"_ Ryozo mumbles as he returns to his tower and carefully lowers the next square of wood into place. "You guys jus' dunno how ta look fer wha's right in front o' you."

"Yes, because _hanging from the bowsprit_ is right in front of us," Hina replies deadpan. She turns her attention to the girl to my right. "And over here is Nene. She's a little quiet but still good to talk to. And if Ryozo starts to bug you a little too much, come to her. Besides Kyoko, she's the only one he'll actually listen to."

Nene looks over at me. She raises her hand in greeting. I smile and wave back at her.

"That's it? No mention of her totally unnecessary harshness?" Leon complains, failing to notice the hard stare that Nene is now giving him. "You're more than happy to talk shit about us two, but when it comes to her, you're suddenly buddy-buddy?"

"Well _maybe_ if _someone_ hadn't constantly pounded on the walls the night I left, I'd be in a bit more of a generous mood!" Hina abruptly snaps at him.

"And wha' about me?" Ryozo pipes up. He doesn't look particularly bothered by his introduction, it's more like he's just curious.

She loses her anger quickly and shrugs. "I just call it like I see it."

Ryozo closes his eyes and nods. "Fair enough. Can' argue wi'that."

"And speaking of that night," Leon speaks up. He rests his cheek on his palm and leans over towards Hina's direction. "You gonna tell us about your top secret mission?"

She snorts in response. "Pfft, no way. That's why it's called a secret, you moron."

"Does it have anything to do with—?"

"Hey, mind your manners!" Hina suddenly cries out, clapping her hands over my ears and forcing my head away from the table. "The kid's been through a lot because of them, he doesn't need any reminders."

I can't hear Hina say anything more but it still takes a few moments before she releases my head and I'm free to move again. Leon looks a little disgruntled but it only takes a glare from Hina for him to turn away with a huff.

I hear footsteps gradually getting louder from behind and instinctively turn to look, but the plate placed in front of me draws my attention back forward. It's a simple meal of eggs and hardtack, with a cup of water—no doubt mixed with alcohol—to soften the rock-solid biscuits. It's not a massive amount but I wasn't expecting a mountain of food and the eggs smell super delicious anyway and oh geez, my stomach's rumbling _really loudly._

Hina gestures to the guy standing behind me. "And last but not least, this is Noriaki. He's our cook, so he's responsible for that delicious meal you're already scarfing down."

"Thish ish… wearry gooph…" I swallow the egg in my mouth and smile gratefully at him. "Thanks!"

He shuffles his feet for a moment before he meets my gaze and gives a small smile of his own. "I hope you enjoy your meal."

I pick up the biscuit and dunk it into the water-alcohol mixture. I don't actually know how much of this is alcohol but I am _way_ too hungry to care at the moment. I'm not going to drink it anyway, just use it to make the biscuit soft enough to be edible. I wish it would do so a little quicker, though. The sooner I finish the hardtack, the sooner I can eat the beautiful eggs that I'm saving for last.

For last…

Didn't Hina say Noriaki was 'last but not least?' "Wait, is this it?"

"Is what it?" Leon asks, still a little miffed from what Hina said to him.

"Is this everyone in your crew?" I clarify.

Hina hums in thought. "Uh, you've met Mondo, and Sakura and Keizo… so there's… two more you haven't met yet!"

Two more? Only two?

"…You run this whole ship with _eleven people?"_

"Yep."

" _How do you do that?!"_

"With skill," Hina answers, satisfied by my surprise. She snatches a bit of my egg with her fingers. "And lots of practice."

I try to protest but the food is already gone down her throat. Seriously? I'm pretty sure you ate already. That's just not fair. I let out a little whine to make my displeasure known and she smiles teasingly. I shove the hardtack into my mouth and test it. I can kind of sink my teeth into it. "And you're all the same age?"

"Yeah," Ryozo says. "Close enough, anyway. Tha small number o' people here means we don' burn through our stuff quickly like 'em other ships, even if we got ta do more work ta make up fer it."

Eleven teenagers run a pirate ship all by themselves? In comparison to the other ships I've seen in Speswynn's harbor, the _Sea Star_ was just under medium-sized, a tad larger than _Hope's Peak,_ and she had _at least_ twice as many people! And of all the types of ships I know of, merchant ships tend to limit their crew to the bare minimum for more cargo space. "I don't know whether to be impressed or concerned," I admit.

"Go for impressed." It takes me a moment to realize Nene has spoken from beside me. "We don't get 'impressed' often."

The door to the room abruptly swings open. Kyoko walks in and frowns when she sees us all sitting at the table. Startled, Leon, Ryozo, and Nene all leap to their feet, with expressions I've seen Komaru wear when Mom catches her sneaking pastries up to her room. "C-Captain!" they stammer. Ryozo's tower crashes to the floor with a loud clatter.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demands. "There are floors to be cleaned if you think sitting and chatting here is more important than your duties. Or would your time be better spent assisting in the Dark Room?"

Their faces immediately go green. "N-No, captain!"

"Then hurry up and get to work."

"Aye!" they all chorus and almost trip over themselves in their rush to leave the room. Kyoko stands out of their way, watching them go with a hint of annoyance creeping into her usual impassiveness. She turns back to the table and narrows her eyes at the girl next to me. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"M-Me?" Hina points to herself in surprise. "I was… I mean, showing Makoto—"

"Go. I will take over," Kyoko says. "You can start by helping out Sakura with her tasks."

Her face lights up with happiness at the opportunity to work with her friend, but then she looks down at me and that fades to reluctance. Ultimately, she gives her captain a nod and stands up. "See you around, Makoto!" Hina waves as she leaps over the table and hurries out of the room.

I just sit there dumbly, still processing how quickly everyone had left the room. A hand clamps around my arm and pulls me up from my seat. Without me even realizing, Kyoko had made her way over to me and is now dragging me towards the door. In my surprise, I drop my biscuit onto my plate where my half-finished egg still sits. I try to reach back for it but Kyoko's grip on my arm is like iron.

"Come on. Time to get to work."

But… But what about my food…?!

* * *

 **I did warn you about inconsistent updates.**

 **(tbh i didnt think it'd be almost a year but whatev)**

 **And here we get to meet (almost) all of _Hope's Peak's_ crew! Yeah, it doesn't include everyone from class 78 but I have reasons for that. Mostly either because I didn't think they'd fit as pirates or I already decided some other role for them. But I'm fairly certain I planned a role for them all so you'll see them eventually. (hopefully).**

 **Also the number one reason this chapter took so long (besides life): my OCs! yayyyyyy. Srsly tho I did stress about them a lot, lemme know what you guys think of them to begin with kthnx.**

 **Now that Kyoko's shown up I feel a lot better about marking this with Naegiri (idk why I didn't do it from the beginning). It is gonna be slow tho so. bear with.**

 **Oh and sorry if there's any formatting problems?? I'm posting this via the app (fanfic has an app apparently) on my mobile. If I find any issues I'll have to fix them next weekend when I have access to my laptop again.**

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 **REVIEW TIME**

 **LyricstoSilence: ahhhh i still can't believe senpai noticed me. I'm glad this idea entertained you so much that you had to fangirl for ten minutes and read it twice. and i still love your fanart. thank you for it. it still makes me smile. Hope you enjoyed this latest chapter!**

 **Fallenstreet01: Ayyy I managed to post it! Here's hoping it was worth the wait.**

 **Savage theron: Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **Tatsurian: Yep, this is gonna contain heaps of Naegiri! More than FTUH probably because I have a lot more to juggle there. I think it'll be easier to manage here. The way I've started planning SSDespair is with little scenes I'll connect together and tbh a lot of the scenes involve Makoto Kyoko interactions.**

 **Archsage328: Mmmmmm I love my pirate AU so much and pirates in general. Swashbuckling shenanigans here we come. And yes, Kyoko's part of the crew. As it turns out she's the captain. Scary captain. Poor Makoto there's gonna be a lot of pitfalls before they fall in love. Regarding plot, I know what'll happen up to about when Makoto joins _Hope's Peak_ (spoilers not spoilers bc srsly we can't have a pirate au without the protag becoming a pirate) so that's good. Best part about having them be pirates means they'll be at sea with nothing to do sO HELLO SOCIAL LINK OPPORTUNITIES. AKA Free Time Events. This story's gonna have a lot of them.**

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 **Keep smiling, readers!**


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